bloom

blanks are a really good price. Check out Dan's web site...he's great to deal with also. The rods that made his business, and the ones I believe G&L were building on, were the old Sig V's....the 8'9'' 4 wt was an incredible blank. If you can find it anywhere, buy it.

Love the Hardy's. Just waiting now to get some bling (Islander)

That's the problem, some of Dan Craft blanks are so inexpensive, I find myself wanting to pick them up just for the sake of having them. It's like fly tying...hey that looks neat, and it's only a few bucks.

Yup, it was at least three coats of Sally Hansen's to get the look I wanted, all turned by hand. May have to get the turner set up and try the epoxy again. The toughest part was actually finding orange biots for the cheeks. Finally got some so will be trying that out this winter.

Nice tie...I got into those 'english buggers' last winter too. They worked ok...still more testing to do. Got tired of the epoxy coating, so started using hard as nails or brushable fisherman's glue.

Was the rod you built "The One" (6' 10'' 3 pc). Been looking at building up this blank, but already have a nice 2 wt. What's it like?

Andy in Victoria is great to deal with...see Taco's link. He's always at the Fly Fishing Show in Jan too. Fishtales is the best for local dealers...and they carry Dan Craft.

1. Get back to Barnaby 2. 30'' Rainbow...going to be tough 3. Hook my 4 year old on fly fishing (already got the 6 year old building a rod this winter)

Think you guys might be talking about the same make of rod

Thanks...I'm now officially on Holidays. Now if only some of the Crowsnest river would start to thaw.

Can't comment on that rod, but I like Redington. I have one of their first rods still (freshwater series). Good rod, and great warranty/customer service.

There really is no perfect solution. The pastes etc work OK for a while, but you will need to keep applying it. I know of others who just keep dipping their rod in the water to melt the ice, but of course, the ice comes back. I had one day on the Crow that was so cold that the ice froze the line in the tip top...I was fairly limited to the water I could cover with only 5' of line out. Had to go back to the car as I was scared of breaking the rod tip. Try to find those days above 0, and that will greatly help your cause.

love eating pike...definitely under rated!

Seen people use rubber from a bike inner tube.

Messed around with numerous variations a few years back (ie. red glass bead up front, hackle all the way through, crystal chenille for the body), but now just go with this one. I can spin off a couple dozen in a night if need be.

I've tried little leeches nymphed under indicators on the Bow, especially around run off, but never had much luck. I keep trying though as the 'people in the know' keep telling me this is worth trying.

Nice fly. Catatonic leeching is just like chironomiding, just replace the chrony with a leech. Chop on the lake is huge. I think that when the lake turns to glass, it makes the fish a little nervous and they stop feeding, or even worse, head for cover (ie. deeper water). Whenever it goes calm at Bullshead (which we all know is very rare), I'll usually pick up and head to a part of the lake where I see even the tiniest bit of chop....if I can't find any, it's off to deeper water.

That is an awesome fish!

Catatonic style...what I'm referring to is running a leech under an indicator. I cast it out, let it sit there, and then give it a quick 2 or 3 inch strip every 30 to 60 sec to attract the fish's attention. I usually run two flies with the leech on top, and then a chironomid or shrimp below tied onto the eye of the leech. I like to fish them just above the weeds, or just off a weed bed. My normal rig looks like this: No leader, just ~10' of cheaper fluorocarbon like P-line or vanish, then Barrel swivel, then 20' of frog hair fluoro. The leech is tied in only about 10'' below the swivel and then the dropper pattern is tied in on the 10' tag. I like how's there's less knots, and the leech tends to sit out perpendicular to the rig this way. The indicator (lightest..most sensitive one possible) is on the cheaper flouro.

Hey, I'm not picky...I'll take what I can get. And along the same lines, I also landed a 4 or 5lb sucker out of K lakes on that fly

I like the emerging part because the hackle up front is usually put on 'emerging' patterns, and it's ironic to see it on a leech pattern...cause we all know that leeches emerge Lonefisher, those pics should look familiar as you took them...and H2O took the bottom one. It pays off to go fishing with board members...they know where all the fish are (and if I remember right, they bring the beer too)

Here's a pic and pattern for the emerging leech, or bloom's leech. My go to pattern for all lake fishing...almost always fished catatonic style. (One I just grabbed from my box) Hook: size 10 or 12 (size 12 here) TMC 200R Lead: Front third wrapped with lead Tail: black woolly bugger marabou (tail's a little long here) Body: Olive ice dub Hackle: Dyed green grizzly. Webby. Only 2 or 3 turns on the front of the fly. (Hackle could be a little more webby than the one shown here) Rib: Thin copper wire reversed wrapped over the body. Thread: Red, and form a big red head. Here's three fish landed this summer catatonic leeching with the labove eech.

Besides a fly tying bobbin, thread tensioners that you pick up at sewing stores are the best way to go. Everything else is pretty simple...there's also a lot of plans on the internet.

Nice H2O, go and tell a guy not to worry too much about the reel for a 3 or 4 wt and then post a picutre of your rod with a 'Rolls Royce' attached to the reel seat Awesome set up!

For the rivers in the south, go with Vic out of Crowsnest Angler. For Bullshead, let some of us know when they're coming and hopefully we can hook up with them.