Moss agate stripping guide on a Rainshadow blank.

Things have been slow here on the TVangler site lately. We’ve failed to post anything on a few recent fishing trips, but it’s not for lack of trying. We’re gearing up for our Yellowstone pilgrimage, and I had two rods to finish up before heading out. That’s on top of all the standard pre-trip madness like last minute fly tying (I apparently didn’t use winter wisely), building leaders, organizing gear, mortgaging the house to pay for gas, worrying over stream flow data, etc. Priority number one, though, was finishing my wife Jacqulyn’s 9′ 6wt rod so she could use it while in Yellowstone. You can see the stripping guide to the right. The rod is a 2 piece 9′ 6wt Rainshadow blank. The blank is a deep green, the stripping guide is moss agate, the thread spring green and antique gold silk. I’ve included several more photos below. The reel seat is by REC with a buckeye burl insert. I think it turned out very classy. I included a feather inlay of brown ringneck pheasant and jungle cock nails. We took it out to cast on Sunday, and it performed very well. I was able to cast all the Cortland 444 line off the reel except for one last loop at my feet, probably a record for me. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, text book casting (read “huge tailing loops”), but I got it out there. And I might have been able to cast it all if I had had space. I kept snagging the power line, trees, and fence behind me. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I took them quickly between rounds of manic fly tying. Before we head out, I have at least one more article to post, and then I’ll be leaving the site in Insane’s questionable hands. Take care,
Nathan

Feather inlay of ringneck pheasant and jungle cock.

Handle area of the rod. The reel seat is nickel silver by REC. Insert is buckeye burl.

Close up of the hook keeper. The hook keeper is a British style tender in antique gold. Winding check is nickel silver by Struble.

Back in February I had posted an article about how Alabama’s catfish were under much distress from our current laws and practices. To make a long story short, commercial fishing and out of state private pond owners are destroying our large catfish population. I won’t fall back into the debate for lack of time, but if you fit in this category, may you never catch another fish as long as you live!!! Anyhow, a friend of mine decided that enough was enough and started a petition to save these enormous fish from future extinction. I know many of you signed the petition, and I’m sure that there were those doubters who didn’t because “it probably won’t help.” Let this be a lesson to all of us….There is hope! After much debate and diligent work on the part of those who framed the petition, it was accepted and is currently being put into law.

Per Outdoor Alabama:

“Board Member Raymond Jones Jr. of Huntsville introduced a measure to limit the number of large catfish taken in Alabama, especially the Tennessee River system, where large catfish have been captured and transported live across state lines to pay-to-fish ponds as brood stock.

Jones’ proposal, which passed unanimously, would make it illegal to possess more than one catfish over 34 inches in total length taken from Alabama public waters. No blue or flathead over 34 inches total length may be transported live beyond the boundaries of the state unless permitted in writing by Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.”

You can keep up with all the new laws and regulations on www.outdooralabama.com

If we all put forth this kind of effort not only for our state but the preservation of fishing worldwide, think of the impact we could have. Let’s take action!

God Bless,
Insane

Jacqulyn makes an upstream cast. The stream in this area has a definite Western feel to it.

Jacqulyn and I headed into Smoky Mountain National Park just before what I knew would be a busy Memorial Day weekend. One of my favorite streams. We weren’t heading very far in, but I still held out hope that we’d find some solitude. The hope was a momentary one as there were already people set up at the backcountry site as we hurried in just before dark. It was a Thursday. We had even more company from then on.

Trips like this can make you wonder why you go. I tell myself that I go for the solitude, the quiet, the adventure, to peer behind the veil we’ve draped across this world and see the true reality hidden there. Some people say backpackers are escapists, that they are trying to escape their problems, etc. Maybe that’s true, but if so, they’re not escaping from the real world; they’re escaping to it. But a backpacker on a popular trail along a popular stream in the nation’s most popular national park on summer’s first holiday weekend isn’t really escaping much. The backpacking trip becomes much like a visit to any other tourist attraction, perhaps prettier than most. One where, if you know where and how to look, you can find the dark corners where they keep the cool stuff, but a tourist attraction nonetheless. Still, this is when we had time off work, so this is when we went. Read the rest of this entry »

I played a lot with my wide angle lens on this trip. The tabis get the wide angle treatment here. Unfortunately, almost all my photos turned out to be trash-worthy. My freshly finished fiberglass rod also makes an appearance.

Jacqulyn and I took only our Hawaiian tabis for wading on our recent backpacking trip in the Smokies. A gamble on our part considering we had no idea how they’d hold up over three days of fishing. If you’ll remember, tabis are ninja-esque, sock/wading shoe combos popular in Hawaii for hiking to waterfalls. They’re not the most attractive things, and this endows them with two immediately obvious advantages: they fulfill every fly fisherman’s secret desire to be an eccentric, and they (along with more traditional techniques such as excessive body odor and swearing loudly at your invisible friend) might assist in clearing more fashionable anglers out of your favorite hole. This was to be their first real test. The only other time I wore them, we were fishing roadside with my Abrams Creek wading shoes easily accessible. That fishing trip had been a leisurely affair as fishing trips go, and I didn’t give the shoes a proper breaking in. Our concerns on this trip revolved mostly around durability. I had my doubts that the seam between the sock material and the harder plastic would hold up to three days of hard wading on a rough mountain stream.

So, how did they perform? Turns out durability wasn’t an issue. After three days of tricky wading, the tabis looked good as new. Our feet, however, didn’t come out feeling great. Although it wasn’t “that” bad, our ankles did take a minor beating. Obviously, the tabis provide no lateral support, which is sorely missed when boulder hopping or feeling your way through a swift run. Jacqulyn’s ankle gave way several times. Luckily she fell short of serious injury, but the increased risk of a severe ankle sprain is cause for concern. My main problem was banging my ankles off rocks in fast water. If I could see where to place my feet, I was mostly stable. When I couldn’t see my feet, I quickly developed a penchant for cramming my unprotected ankle between unforgiving boulders (between a rock and a hard place, as they say). The tabis are stellar performers when it comes to gripping slick rocks, just as good as any felt-soled boot I’ve worn. Better than some actually since the felt is fully exposed on bottom, unlike my Korkers wading boots on which the felt is outlined in plastic. Surprisingly, I noticed no discomfort due to the split toe design. I thought I might develop a big blister either on my big toe or on the adjacent toe, but I didn’t. Neither did Jacqulyn. I will recommend that you keep your toe nails well-clipped when wearing tabis, which is actually good advice for any sort of activity that’s stressful on the feet, like backpacking or having your toes licked by a freak. One other thing I suspect, but which it’s difficult to be certain about, is that I move around on the stream more slowly with the tabis. I take more time placing my feet, and some of the certainty is missing when I’m in faster water.

Conclusions: I’m going to recommend tabis as an excellent bargain pair of wading shoes. A sexy pair of green and yellow ones like mine will run you around $10 in Hawaii. They grip slick rocks well and protect your toes better than wading sandals. They weigh next to nothing compared to wading boots. I tied the sock portion of mine to the frame of my Kelty Trekker. I don’t think they’d be appropriate at all for large, strong freestone streams. If cleated wading boots are what you’d normally wear, leave the tabis at home. If you’re going to be fishing a steep-gradient, small-to-medium size mountain stream, you could probably get by with tabis, but consider wearing your regular felt-sole boots for the extra stability. If you’re going to be fishing moderate-gradient streams with some meadow sections or small mountain streams that aren’t too rough, definitely consider taking the tabis, especially if backpacking. For the typical fly fisher, tabis would be most appropriate for high mountain lake and small stream backpacking trips, where most times you’ll be fishing from shore but might occasionally need to cross or fish a small stream. If you’re hauling wading boots for those type of trips, I think you’d appreciate the light weight and performance of a pair of tabis. Take care,

Nathan

Certain details in the story below have been altered to protect the unrepentant guilty.

The location was my place of work. Not a pleasant place for me, so we’ll just skip the place descriptions this time around.

“You like to fly fish?”

The question came from a short, skinny, jittery fellow with a profuse growth of grotesque but neatly trimmed facial hair. I immediately perceived that familiar sense of forboding which says, “You, sir, are about to be annoyed,” but I went ahead with the conversation anyway. We’ll say out of politeness.

“Yep. You?”

“Sure thing, man. I saw that Trout Unlimited calendar in your cubicle with that freakin’ huge brown trout on the cover. Where you do your fishing?”

“I spend a good bit of time up in Tennessee, on the tailwaters and in the Smokies.”

“Me too! Ever catch any big ones up there?”

“No, not really. I guess the biggest I’ve caught in the Smokies was 13 or 14 inches.”

“Really.” You might think he phrased that as a question. You’d be wrong. It was more of a smart aleck, smirking observation. I thought about not asking the next logical question, but I had to hear what he’d say.

“You ever get any big ones yourself?”

“Heck yeah.” This murmured cooly, as in he catches fish bigger than my Dodge all the time. On a 2 wt Gillum bamboo rod. “20 inchers, man. All the time.”

“Really? Brook trout, are they?”

“No, man, great big browns like in that calendar on your desk.” Read the rest of this entry »

It never ceases to amaze me the things our government can find to spend money on. I’m sure you’ve all seen a government-funded study or two that makes you question, out loud, “Why?” For example, I saw one a while back on Why Dogs Bark.

Seriously – I can’t make this stuff up. The government spent taxpayer money over a three year span to discover why dogs bark. Their findings? Dogs bark when stuff bugs them.

Wow. I never would’ve guessed.

Other government studies from the No Kidding files are: people learn more when they’re awake, drinking large quantities of alcohol impairs your ability to maintain relationships, and cats suck. *

With all that said, you may be wondering about the title to this article, questioning whether you should spend your valuable time reading it when you think you know it all already. There’s no question - of course you should. Read the rest of this entry »

Red-banded agate stripping guide on Lamiglas Spring Creek blank. The reflections on the epoxy make it look wavy. It’s not. Nice smooth finish for a change.

Finished work on my Lamiglas Spring Creek 7′ 6″ 4wt a couple weeks ago. I tried it out for the first time over the weekend in the Smokies. Jacqulyn and I backpacked to a stream on the North Carolina side for three nights. More on that later. I tried the rod with both my Thebault silk line and a Cortland Peach. This was my first experience with silk. A real pleasure to cast. The rod cast like a dream at the shorter distances I was working. Silk line and a dry fly. Never cast much further than 20 feet or so. The next day I strung up the Cortland Peach. I rigged a dry fly with a soft hackle dropper. Didn’t much like how it cast with this set up. I couldn’t get the rig to turn over well with the stiff breeze coming straight downstream. Just didn’t feel right. I removed the dropper and all was well. I kept the colors simple on this rod. I used a rust red YLI silk for the main wraps with antique gold YLI for trim. I added a gold British hook tender which I’ll rarely use but liked how it looked. I usually wrap my leader around my reel frame and hook the fly to a guide. I wrapped on a red-banded agate from Arcane for the stripping guide. I didn’t add a signature wrap or feather inlay to this rod. I wanted to give it a simple, classic look. Probably the best finish work I’ve done. All the wraps had a good smooth finish over them with pretty even over runs. I think the rod is beautiful and had a great time fishing it. It’s battle-tested now with a good many browns and rainbows to its credit.

British style hook tender. Also a nice shot of the Thebault silk line.

After arriving home, I tested the rod at longer distances out in the yard using the silk line. With more line out, I could really feel the rod load. I was easily punching out as much distance as I normally get from my much faster St. Croix 4 wt with a plastic line. Just a real pleasure to cast. I think this Spring Creek blank must be faster than the honey line. It really didn’t seem as slow as I expected. I’d rate it close to one or two of my medium graphite blanks in action, but I could feel what the fiberglass was doing a little better. The rod doesn’t exactly feel like bamboo, but it has some of that same character. Some more photos of the rod below.

Shot of the handle area includes Pflueger Medalist reel spooled with silk line. All reel seat hardware and winding check are nickel silver by Struble. Cocobolo insert.

Ferrule area. It looks like my ferrule wrap on the female side is uneven. It’s not. The tip of the female ferrule actually came a little uneven.

Take care,
Nathan

Good to see you again, loyal blog reader. As y’all know, I abhor cold weather and have spent much of the past few months burrowed under a blanket of disdain for the (to me) freezing air outside. I was fooled by a brief period of spring-like air a little ways back, but winter keeps smacking me back into my house. The weather guy, though, promised me 80 degree temps today. So, I emerge, ready to take on another Spring/Summer. I’m glad you survived the cold months without my writing and am happy to provide the intellectual and humorous nourishment you’ve been craving for oh so long…

Every morning on my drive into work, I get a little booster shot of patriotism, courtesy of the local country station. As I turn North onto Shields road, headed seemingly straight into the mountains surrounding the small valley Huntsville sits in, 102.1 FM has a child read the Pledge of Allegiance, then follow up with someone singing our national anthem.

I gotta tell you, there’s something about looking at a small mountain range, on a bright sunny morning, with our anthem blaring from the speakers that’ll make you wanna stand up and shout “AMEN!”

We really do have a lot to be grateful for as Americans, and as much as I relish political debate, I won’t drag everyone into a battle over opinion on the status of our nation. I won’t bother to drone on about the economic status and standard of living EVERYONE in the United States has, compared to the rest of the planet. While I’ve been to places where poor means you don’t get to eat every day, and just lay down in the dirt to sleep because there’s no where to call home, I won’t draw comparisons to our own definitions of what poor means. I won’t even spend time espousing the abounding opportunity available in this country to those who wish to pursue it, nor ponder over why we have an immigration problem instead of an emigration one.

I’ll pause while Insane looks that up on Dictionary.com…

What I will do is profess, for the millionth time, that we do live in the greatest country on the planet. It’s not even debatable that our society, even with all its history, problems and infighting, is the preeminent civilization of all time, both in terms of furthering mankind through innovation and invention to real societal/governmental democratic ideals. Freedom, as seen in our country, is the fruition of dreams from old and, I dare say, the way God would want it. No, we’re not perfect, but we are implementing and practicing freedom the likes of which no other society on Earth has ever even bothered to try. The very idea of government ‘by the people, of the people and for the people’ has never been seen on planet earth, until now.

We’re doing it. We’ve been doing it. And in a scant couple hundred years, we’ve built the greatest society the planet has ever seen.

While we may debate philosophical, economic and political morality topics in regards to our nation, there’s no arguing over the one topic that ties us all together HERE, on this site: fishing. You may or may not realize this, but the freedom to fish here, the WAY we fish here, is something to treasure. Want an example? Read the rest of this entry »

Insane has taken up the ol’ ball and chain. I advised him to run away to Montana and be a fly-fishing guide, but he’d have none of it. Apparently he’s “in love” with Katie. And so, on Saturday, May 17 the two were wed at Oak Park Baptist Church in Huntsville, AL. Pondering Insane’s personality traits might lead one to question whether Katie should not be the one carrying the nickname “Insane,” but we’ll just try to think about more pleasant things. I was suckered into being a groomsman. TVangler contributor Jason Kelley showed up in a suit! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t actually shaken his hand. He and I both agreed that our outfits weren’t suitable for fishing, but we’d be willing to try it if given half a chance (we weren’t). It was quite a day. We’ll try to post a few photos later. The newly weds should be in Jamaica by now.

Feather inlay on the 6 wt rod I built for my father. Ring-neck pheasant and brown rooster hackle.

I am finally getting caught up on my rod-building work. Over the last two weeks I managed to finish up my father’s 9′ 6 wt fly rod and my own 7′6″ 4 wt fiberglass fly rod. I’m including photos of my father’s rod with this post. I’ll try to get some of my fiberglass rod for later in the week. You can see the feather inlay on Dad’s rod to the right. I used two feathers from a ring-neck pheasant and a brown rooster hackle feather. I didn’t quite get all the fibers sorted like I wanted, but I think it turned out nicely. I used a maroon silk thread for the windings with a beige silk trim band, which complimented the feathers well. The blank is a 9′ 2 piece Rainshadow RX6 blank. It’s deep blue with a nice medium fast action. I used chrome snake guides and a chrome stripper with ceramic insert. I wanted to use an agate stripping guide (because I think they’re cool), but Dad said he planned to use it for bass as well as trout. I reluctantly decided the ceramic insert would hold up better to a 6 lb bass running out all his line and backing. The reel seat is an REC nickel silver piece with black ash insert. Handle was bought pre-shaped from Angler’s Workshop. Dad’s planning to use this rod during our Yellowstone trip. In fact, every fisherperson going on that trip will be using one of my rods at least part of the time, so I’ll really begin to see how they perform in the real world. This rod was promised to Dad at Christmas. Only five months late. I’m mostly happy with how it turned out. I like the colors and feather inlay. The silk thread is really classy. My finish work is getting better, but I still had a wider overrun on a few of the wraps than what I’d like, and the line of the overrun on one of the guides wasn’t even. I wouldn’t have made much of a surgeon. The hands just aren’t steady enough. Overall though, I believe it’s my best work to date. You can see other photos of the rod below. Click them for larger images. Read the rest of this entry »

We received an email last night from a David Grace asking us to help promote the idea of a National Fishing License. Ever heard of it? What do you think? I read the website, and it sounds reasonable. Of course, I won’t have to worry about it. Heck, I don’t even get to fish here, so I sure wouldn’t need to worry about fishing licenses for five or six different states. I’m almost resigned to my fate of eternally mowing the yard, attending IPT meetings and making Insane’s coffee, but there’s still that tiny spark of hope that some day I can fish until I tire of it.

I admit to not knowing much about this. All the research I’ve done is to read the website promoting the idea. You won’t find dissenting opinions there. Also, I’m typing this really late at night, it’s been hours since I’ve had caffeine, and I’ve been wrapping tiny silk thread on a rod for a couple hours. I’m in no condition to form political opinions. The floor is yours,

hawgdaddy