Three

I am still in that stage of watching the light play on that beautiful barrel of walnut burl and Dennis’ signature style of bamboo flaming. There was sunshine yesterday, a lovely calm afternoon just above forty degrees, and I took the rod outside for my first casts. The feel was crisp yet wonderfully delicate, even more magical than the prototype!

My passion is hunting large, difficult wild trout with dry flies, and summer is my favorite season. The widespread mayfly hatches of spring are finished for the year, and the trout have adjusted to the heavy fishing pressure the season of hatches brings. River flows are much reduced, sparklingly clear, and the pools transmit each subtle movement when an angler approaches. It is the most difficult season for difficult trout. It is heaven…

Some may scoff at a three weight bamboo fly rod for such fishing, and certainly I have cast many that were not suited to the quest for wild trout best measured in pounds. This rod is different.

I was convinced five years ago when Dennis brought a new eight-foot 2 weight rod to the Catskill Cane Revival in Roscoe, New York. The rod was impressive, easily casting sixty to seventy feet in the gymnasium, and there was a strength that belied the rod’s slender proportions.

When I sat and we talked about that two weight, Dennis told me that he had made the rod for a customer that fished schoolie striped bass with it. These fish average eighteen to twenty some inches in length and fight with the power expected of saltwater gamefish. A nine-foot six weight graphite is a good light rod for schoolies. This fellow’s new Menscer rod not only survived, it has flourished!

I wanted one, but I waited. For the kind of fishing I had in mind, a fly line with a long, fine taper is part of the necessary gear. I felt a number three fly line would be best suited, handling a bit wider assortment of dry flies on breezy days, and so began my campaign of suggesting, and then cajoling Dennis to expand his line of rods once more.

Summer lies far out on the horizon in this first week of February, but there is still more to be accomplished. The next phase of the game involves the search for the perfect fly line to bring out each nuance of this wonderful rod, grace, power and control. For each bamboo rod, there is a particular line that will rise to the ideal of the individual angler. Once the line has been chosen, a leader will have to be tailored to suit. There are some flies to be tied as well; Schwiebert’s Letort Beetles that I promised myself, the tiny replicas of Art Flick’s blue-winged olive variants, and the barest impressions of rusty spinners. June will arrive when I least expect it!