What happens when you mix a building contractor, a broken fly rod, and the need to keep fishing?
Not something we recommend, but a good fix in a pinch. We wholeheartedly subscribe to what ever it takes to “Stay Out There” after you “Get Out There”.
Winner of the Tim Rajeff “Look-A-Like” contest is Chris Pellerian hailing from Maine.
Chris has chosen an Echo3 690 fly rod as his prize. Good fishing Chris and keep Rock’n the look.
A big Thanks to all the entrants for some fun and very creative images.
Please stay tuned to the Echo website for future fun and contests.
What to do when you have a bunch of frequent flier miles piled up and its December in the Pacific Northwest? You fly to Argentina and trade winter for spring, at least for a couple of weeks. It was time to cash in and head out. Kath and I are lucky in that “work” and fishing are the same thing. This trip would involve trout fishing in two radically different environments.
The first place on our fishing itinerary was Lago Verde Wilderness Resort. Check out the map and you can see that it is located in the middle of tons of excellent trout water. Lago Verde is a unique and breath taking lodge nestled in an incredibly picturesque part of Patagonia. The views, water, fish, and fishing were unbelievable. A must do destination in every aspect. We had brought a ton of big beetles, hoppers, and foam behemoths thinking they were the table fare for these special fish. But when we got on the water we quickly realized small stuff was the food of choice. Sight fishing for 16 to 20 inch fish with 6x tippet and size 20 dries was the game while we were there. Fishing for the most part was quite technical and Alfredo, the lodge owner, wanted to concentrate fishing the dry fly only if possible.
Lago Verde Wilderness Resort is located shore side on one of a chain of lakes, all with fish in them. On calm mornings and evenings it was possible to walk from your room and sight cast to cruising bows and not even get your feet wet. The rivers and lakes are perfectly gin clear and you can expect to see hundreds of fish every day your on the water. A near by spring creek had the clearest water I have ever seen, so clear your sure you can reach out and touch the fish. This is a place you need to visit, experience the finest lodging and food, combined with kick ass technical fishing.
Our second destination was Estancia Laguna Verde, which sits in the middle of nowhere, basically the rugged plains east of the Andes Mountains. It couldn’t be more different than the river and lake paradise we had just left. Stark and ominous best describes the far reaching vistas and epic mountain-scapes you see. There were no calm days on these flat lands, plus no trees larger then knee high. All activity takes place in canyons and lake basins that are slightly sheltered from the relentless winds. Besides the rugged beauty, the biggest reason people make this difficult trip (four hours in a 4×4 vehicle from the airport) is for BIG TROUT!!!
Laguna Verde Lodge is located a short distance from world famousStrobel Lake, also known as Jurassic Lake. The lodge was very comfortable, with all the amenities you could hope for. The fishing program focuses on the lake and the Barrancoso River, Strobel Lake’s main tributary. The river offers two distinct classes of trout for the angler, the beautiful resident rainbow that run from 10 to 16 inches, and the lake rainbows that enter it to spawn. The river run lake fish typically averaged 5 lbs, and you would sight fish to them with dries. This river has the craziest stream fishing I have ever experienced, period!
Fishing the lake was an experience unlike anywhere else on earth. The rocks are jagged calcium deposits over lava giving them their white appearance. Looking down the lake shoreline you would think you are fishing on the moon. But, there are monster trout cruising the lake edges within casting range. This season they have landed trout up to 22 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The average lake fish we caught was about 7 pounds. A friend fishing with us stuck a 12 pound chromer that tore him up. Due to its harsh location it blows every day and the wind can be relentless with the steady force just about knocking you over at times. Big wind, Big fish!!!
The technique was to blind cast from shore in one of the semi protected coves that provides some relief from the wind. While blind casting you would regularly see fish cruising the shoreline and you could regularly get them to eat. These fish are stupid big. We used 5 and 6 weight rods on the river and needed 8 weight rods to handle the wind for the lake fishing.
All we can say is “Save your money and head South” you will not regret it!
Katherine, Jamie, and I visited the Airflo factory inWales,United Kingdom and had a chance to do a little fishing after all the work was completed.
Airflo’s sales manager Gareth Jones had booked a day of grayling fishing for us on the AvonRiver, one of the most famous chalk stream waters in the UK and recognized world wide.
Jamie on the Avon "Beat"
It was fall season and trout fishing was officially closed, you could fish for grayling, just not target the trout. Fall fishing rules allow anglers to use nymphs and sub-surface flies, but you had to adhere to the other standard fishing rules; no wading, and your presentations must be made upstream. Our “beat” was approximately a ½ mile of private water flowing through a beautiful grand old estate. We caught tons of strikingly beautiful Grayling and the occasional unintended brown trout. It would be fun to fish the river during the summer months when the mayflies are said to be “blanket” and all fishing is upstream dry, strictly.
Gareth Jones with an Avon Grayling
Our time there coincided with Pheasant season and we saw twenty or more birds fly over during our time on the river. The game keeper told us that they released 7000 pheasants on the property, but that was a much smaller number than years past. Last year they released three times this amount for driven pheasant hunts offered to their shooting clients. Can you imagine raising 21,000 birds, unbelievable?
For our mid-day break we drove a couple hundred yards to the local pub for some fish and chips. And of course, hoist a pint, all while facing upstream. Tradition!!
On the drive back to London we made a side trip to one of the reservoir fisheries popular with UK anglers. Created by pumping water from the Thames River and part of the London water supply system, these huge reservoirs are used for many aspects of recreation. For fishing, large Rainbow trout are planted in them and the angling rules are cooperatively adhered to; you must kill every fish caught and stop at eight fish.
Fishing at Farmoor Reservoir
Fishing in a concrete lake for planters that you have to kill was not quite my cup of tea.
Tim
Your not looking at the latest torture device, car crusher, or beer brewing equipment (hmm! Idea here). No, its Tim’s overbuilt rod breaking apparatus. Yea, believe it or not Tim is into breaking rods, and he does it with such passion. Our older methods of break testing were not efficient enough… he is all about efficiency.
From the beginning, Tim has been putting all Echo rods through vigorous tests to verify they meet or exceeded his standards. “Blowing” them up under high load/stress situations is one of these criteria. “Breaking” started from humble beginnings; various bags of nuts and bolts carefully weighted and bagged were hung from the tip until… pow, a break.
We progressed to wearing protection, lead apron, athletic cup, safety googles, then lifting the rod to straight vertical by hand. This method proved to be nearly impossible for human power when dealing with 9 to 12 weight rods, and was also best for those wanting graphite embedded in their body. Next stage was a forklift replacing the human, whew, what a relief, no more aching arms. This gave a more consistent approach to the whole affair, but still not to Tim’s satisfaction. Thus “Captain Crunch” was born. Designed to satisfy his passion for efficiency and more importantly, splintered graphite.
Check out Rajeff Sports Channel on YouTube for two videos of breaking rods, one early in the process, and the other using “Capitan Crunch”. All this boils down to Echo making rods you can be proud to own, and know that day after day, trip after trip it will be there for you.
And it didn’t hurt a bit. Ok. Maybe a little.
Crack kills:
