Waving a Stick

My friend Marc is hosting a contest on his Blog The Limp Cobra about the stupidest things that happened to us brothers of the Flyfishing cult. Being stupid and doing stupid things comes natural to me. So I figured I might as well share one of my tales with the rest of the world. So here we go; my entry for the Stupid Cobra contest:

…Last fall I went to a lake on the other side off the country (Oostvoornse Meer, about a 300km ride for me). Just about when I was halfway there I realised I had left my wading jacket at home. A few minutes later I heard the weatherforecast on the radio; start of the day would be nice but into the afternoon the rain would come.
I called my friends, who I would meet later that day at the lake, to ask if they could bring a spare jacket for me. I got the voicemail and left a message, not sure if my friend would hear it in time. Oh well, to late to turn back now. And I didn’t think it was gonna rain all day anyway.

When I arrived at my destination, the weather was fine, just like I thought. I slipped into my waders and got ready to fish. I then found out that the waterproof pouch I usually put my cellphone and my carkeys in were probably in one the pockets of my wading jacket which….
I had left home.
Oh well.. I wasn’ t planning on wading deep anyway. So what the heck; time to do some fishing!

And fish I did.

After a few hours the sky turned grey and i felt the first drops of rain.
These first few drops soon turned into an impressive downpour and I decided this might be a good moment to retreat to my car, sit out the rain and wait for my friends. Who might or might not have gotten my message about the forgotten wading jacket.
I started making my way back on the dam I was on.
At the end of the dam I had to cross over to land to get back to my car.
I stepped of the dam on to what I thought was the bottom, which as it turned out to be, was actually a patch of weeds which desecended into the depths quite a lot  more than I had expected.

I don’t think I need to explain the result of this lack of judgement…
A few moments after my nosedive where I nearly lost an almost brandnew flyrod, I realised I had just drowned my iPhone and my carkeys. I also discovered that a Nanopuff jacket can soak up an impressive amount of water in a surprisingly little amount of time.
But frankly, the jacket was the least of my worries.
I had a phone in my hand which was constantly buzzing (probably shivering because the water was cold, according to one off my friends, thank you very much), and I had this funny feeling about my car keys.

My thoughts about the car keys turned out to be the first thing I got right that day. When I got near the car, it started opening and closing the locks all by itself accompanied by the spontaneous opening and closing of all the windows. This whole car-coming-to-live thing was a real good way to get attention from a lot of people in the parking lot. And the fun had only just begun, because I was still wearing my wet clothes and was starting to shiver just about is much as my drowned phone which had taken its last breath during my walk over to the car. No choice but to strip naked in the parking lot and get on some dry clothes. Nothing was gonna stop me from doing that. You can picture the scene: Car behaving strange with a dude in the nude behind it, but I somehow managed to get into my car and drive over to the cabin my friends and I booked for the night.

Off course there was no heater in there,

off course my friends didn’t get my message about the jacket, and

off course my clothes were still wet the next day,

but fish I did.

Oh yeah, I fished all right.

Like a man on a mission.

And after covering a whole lot of water out of nothing my line went tight and my rod bend.

A big fish had taken my shrimp and took off, heading for, well… somewhere far away from me.

After all this bad luck, I struck gold. All the hardship from the day before vanished in an instant.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Redeem the damned.

And then the line went slack……

Isn’t the internet a great thing?

This afternoon I read Mike Heritage’s  thoughts about flycasting, saw a few of østeins stunning pictures of trout taking flies from the surface, had a look at Christoher Rownes casting clips, gazed at another bunch of Tor Arne and Ulf’s beautifully made flies and was curious what Chris and Marc have been up to lately. That’s a lot of inspiration for one day.

I walk away from my computer with a head full of ideas about what to do with this and that. Hoping to find some time to make it all happen…

Thanks guys!!!!

Inspirators:

østein Rossebø           http://puristen.blogspot.com/

Marc Fauvet                http://thelimpcobra.com/

Mike Heritage             http://michaelheritage.wordpress.com/

Tor Arne Mobekk       http://www.flyfishingnorway.net/

Ulf Hagström               http://thewayofthefly.wordpress.com/

Chris mcCully               http://www.chrismccully.co.uk/index.shtml

Christopher Rownes   http://www.christopherrownes.com/

A few weeks ago I probably was one of the first people in the world to get the brand new Barrio SLX flyline in the post. Before I could test the flylines I first had to be patient because all the water in the country was frozen solid and the temperatures where way below zero. Off course this would have been a great time to test the line-memory but I decided to leave that test to some other utter nutter. Luckily the temps went up yesterday and today I had a few minutes to cast the Barrio SLX for the first time. I took it for a short spin and my first impressions are good, well actually VERY good.

The line loads the rod very well and is incredibly stable in the air, very nice turnover and an overall feeling of total control over you what you want the line to do. Very nice.

I can’t remember ever casting a line that cast this easily. It just might be the best Flyline I have ever casted. I will let you all know if it really is that good in a few weeks after a real test. But for know; I think Mike Barrio has made a killer flyline. At the moment the line has an orange/tan two-tone color which is very visible. Another line with more plain colors, will maybe be added in the (near) future.

-to be continued-

I found this clip underneath on You Tube. It is a short film with Göran Anderson, the guy who “more or less” invented the underhand cast. Göran was filmed while fishing for steelhead on the Deschuttes river.  Apart from it being very nice to see him cast and fish he talks about where and why the Underhand cast comes from. Besides that he also has some really interesting things to say about his fly choice and the way he can “feel” the river when he’s fishing. Have a look for yourself.

How’s that for a title?

As you might have guessed this is not just another gear review. And before I start I will hereby confess that YES! I am a full-blown Tackle tart!!I am on a first-name base with a various employees from FedEx, DHL etc. They can probably find my doorstep with their eyes closed by now. You see, I just cant’t help myself. There always seems to be something better or prettier than what I’ve got at the moment. Flylines have always been my biggest weakness. Rods are not so much a problem because I build them myself (you can find my rods here btw) and in the reels department things have calmed down over the last few years.

After trying, buying and selling new reels on a monthly basis I pretty soon discovered the reels from a small-company-from-Sweden-that-used-to-make-reels-for-another-Swedish-company.

For trout fishing I was very happy with their Featherweight 4Seven for a few years. So instead of trying and buying reels from different brands I started expanding my collection with more reels from the-small-company-from-Sweden-that-used-to-make-reels-for-another-Swedish-company. I figured I should never have to worry about getting another reel again. Well, apart from just a few more as spares for the ones I already had maybe…..

But then, a long summer trip to Norway last year changed all that. While I was trying out one of my friend Terje’s many rods at the Rena-River I noticed the reel attached to it. Very pretty, big, narrow, light and…. well you get the drift: everything I look for in a trout reel. The urge to just have this one struck me like lightning. Off course this wasn’t the first time I had heard off or seen this reel; Hell no! I even bought it’s bigger brother (the Runner) a few months before, purely for aesthetic reasons off course… But when I saw this reel in real live there was no escape. This, dear readers, was the end of a quest. A quest which I foolishly thought had already ended a few years earlier. But no, this reel was without a doubt the best Flyreel in the World!

The reel I am talking about is the LOOP Opti Dryfly and the chances that you stumble upon this article because you were, just like me, hunting the Web for info and pictures of sexy tackle. Well let me tell you that you have come to the right place and I will tell you everything you want to know. First of all let’s start with the technical stuff:

The LOOP Opti Dryfly reel is a designed for use on 4, 5 and 6 weight rods. It is a reel with a unique design in which every little detail is there for a reason. First of all, it’s big and narrow. The diameter of the reel is 102mm, it’s 20mm wide and weighs 135grams.
The reel has LOOP’s power Matrix Drags system and I won’t get all technical on you, but it is a drag system that is very well thought out and it just works. In the documentation about the reel LOOP states that the drag is very smooth and it therefor won’t *ˆ$-up the catch of a lifetime on a light tippet. From my own experience I can tell you that this isn’t just marketing, it is actually true.
From the first moment you get the reel out of the box you can see and feel the craftsmanship and clever design that make this reel better then anything I have ever tried. One of the things I noticed straight away was how incredibly stable the reel feels when you retrieve line back onto the spool. Off course, there is absolutely no play between the spool and the rest of the reel but there’s just this feeling that…. well hard to describe. Just try it for yourself and you will see what I mean.
Something else I really like about the reel is the way the spool is connected. Just a big cap that screws onto the big and solid shaft which houses the drag system. Simple and virtually indestructible.
Then there is the narrow V-spool. LOOP states that this shape allows you to spread the line very even over the entire width of the spool. Well, the combination of the V-shape AND the fact that it is very narrow does make this very easy indeed. You hardly need to use you’re fingers to spread the line evenly.

I don’t think you need any more convincing. Are they expensive? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Sure, there are lots of reels that are a lot cheaper and well-made. But none of these reels comes even close when it comes to that thing that’s so hard to describe.
I’ll round up this rave review, because there is nothing that could be improved for as far is I can see. It’s perfect.
The LOOP Opti Dryfly is the best Flyreel in the World!

Epiloque
In fact I like these reels so much that I decided to expand my rod building business and start selling them. So if you want more information or advice on these reels or any of the other LOOP reels or products, or the Flyrods I build you can e-mail me info@vandermeer-flyroddesing.com or send me a message on Twitter @wavingastick

Impressive

A nice clip showing by my dear friend Staffan showing the motions for making a Slow Lift Cast. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of you out there who would probably give this cast a different name, but the most important things this clip shows is that Flycasting is all about timing. The cast itself is one of those very practical solutions for an everyday fishing situation. Not just for when you don’t have enough room for a backcast. With using this cast you only cast in the direction of the fish on the final delivery, thus minimizing the chance of spooking a fish with excessive false casting over its head…. Nice one Staffan.

Slipped out of bed early this morning to get a quick fix at the water before the start of a busy day. When I stepped out of the car this is what I saw.
The fish I caught afterwards where a bonus after this beautiful sunrise.
-Rudy-

>Pfewwwww…….
After lots of slaving behind the computer I am proud to announce the birth of my own website!
I have been getting more and more requests from people asking me to build a rod for them.
This made me decide to take the plunge, make the next step and start up a small business as a rodbuilder.

and here it is: vanderMeer Flyrod Desgin 


I will be making rods on custom order and only use the best materials and components.
If you are looking for a rod that is perfectly suited to a specific purpose, let me know and I will help you make that dream become a reality.

The website isn’t a 100% ready but, I want to make it public now anyway.
Having my own website also meant I had to make up my mind about what to do with this Blog.
I decided upon moving the whole thing and make it become an integral part of the website.
The nest few weeks I will be spending some time trying to move the archive on this Blog over to its new residence.
For now click on the link below. It will guide you to the NEW home of this Blog and will also be your first entry to the rest of my website.
http://www.vandermeer-flyroddesign.com/vanderMeer_Flyrod_Design/Blog/Blog.html

For those of you who Follow me on Twitter: just keep following me, I won’t change a thing about that. I will still be tweeting for dear life from the same account.

Allright. That’s it. Try the link and I hope to see you all there!

Cheers,
Rudy

>I went out for a quick trip with the floattube yesterday afternoon. First time out in the mutated rubber duck by the way…. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud to be seen. When I arrived at the water my initial thoughts about today’s fishing were confirmed. No surface activity. I decided to show the fish some cleavage to wet their appetite. Tied on a pink Boobie and fished it static on an intermediate line. The end result: 3 fish caught (around 1 kilo), a few long distance releases and quite a few nibbles…