Brazda's Fly Fishing

Most of us who row thousands of oars strokes a year have two things in common, worn shoulders and worn Oars Tips..

SO to keep the shoulders mobile we eat lots of Ibuprofen and buy the best paddles we can afford, often that is in the form of SAWYER DYNALITE’s. Not to many years ago,,,ah well or 20 years ago we always had wood oars ash was the best then fiberglass then composite now we have come full circle and have LAMINATED WOOD with COMPOSITE OARS BLADES,,,wow that’s a mouthful. Any way they have added years to the life of my shoulders so I am adding years to the life of my money makers,,, the paddles.

When your $580 oars start looking like this: sorry about the pics focus but I did not notice till I had done the work:)

 

First thing I did was add Five minute Epoxy like Bondo to the worn off sections of the tips, and then sanded smooth.

 

 

 

 

 

 Once that is dry and hard you can sand it well enough to help the fiberglass resin seal out any water.

 

 

The hard part is getting the matting glassed down with the resin. You have to cut it and fold it down as you go around the corner of the blade 180 degrees. Its not pretty but it will work after all its all about sealing out water and adding wear stripping.

 

 

 As you cover the tips keep the air out and the mesh down it will want to float and the fold will not be perfect, that is were the second layer comes in after it dries I will sand it again and add another finish layer of resin to smooth it up. but for now this phase is done tomorrow I will do the finish work…

 

Hands down, the Sawyer Dynalite oars have been the best I have ever used in my 35 years of rowing boats down rivers, I do like the Shoal cut blade better but at over 500 dinero I will make do with these…

 

 

 

Thanks and have a great week end, Jeff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its now July 17 and the JUNE 10th brown drakes are still making a showing on the upper Yakima, like everything in the wild they run in cycles and this season is the drake cycle for the clear water portion of the Yakima and the Cle Elum. Fishing up there has not been off the hook lights out but a steady action from various sized cutthroat and rainbows with a few bruiser’s tossed into the mix.

A beautiful river the Natches and wonderful Cutthroat that love dries

Nothing better than fishing with Labs

                                  The Drakes are making a showing on the Natches River as well,, a little later in the day but stronger, today we had 4 hrs of great dry fly fishing and in the sun mind you. Did not find the taods that do live there but am very happy with dozens of these!  This is Angler, Scott’s yellow lab and Jesse whom is never far away from the action..

Rivers a little out of shape, Rockslide accross Canyon Road @ mm20

Thankfully we went the way of the Natches as the thunderstorms dumped hard on the Yakima and the slides at 20mile in the canyon let loose with rock and mud. second time in 14 years, this time not as bad as last by any means. But we are on the WRONG side of the blockage.

The Natches is definitely a worthy alternative option to the Yakima and will be fishing from hear on through the season.

Day trips run $450 on the Natches.

Lodging is $150 if needed.

Next up will be the Methow River but I predict it will be two weeks before the GOOD dry fly fishing starts.

Thank You Jeff

The Canyon has its first migration of Summer Stones, the big bugs of the season are finally here. There somewhat spotty but in the right zone nymphing for the larger trout is off the hook and comparable the the best of western trout fishing anywhere. These will continue on into late August, with good dry fly fishing soon to come.

Book your trout fishing now it won’t be getting any better than this!

Jeff@Brazdasflyfishing.com or 253-307-3210

Day trips @ $395 for two anglers.

Full Accomodated lodging and guided fishing $650 for two anglers.

Hosted B&B style lodging and guided fishing $550 for two anglers.

Spent the day yesterday fishing dry fly’s with my wife LISA, she only fishes dries so it was pretty easy, like picking Ice Cream or visiting a Winery just choose a color and taste it…

The traffic was rather high for the upper canyon but since I knew everybody rowing around it was like our own party float, the Boitano Brothers had there whole crew out and a couple private boats made for and interesting float. Almost too interesting when one ( little white drifter) nearly flipped in the eddy at Tower Rock. I love watching all the positioning that goes on between guide boats and private boats, knowing Johnny and Jason well they just do there own thing fishing what they want, waiting when they need basically getting it done like a chess match with river boats. Then the private little dingy comes floating on through trying to mimic the float minus the unrecognized courtesy all the guides give each other on the civilized portions of river.  Fishing guides are used to this and we just continue to exhibit what we consider good boating respect for other anglers, and sometimes those others catch on to more than just whats working,,,which by the way was not dries in the mid day sun as the day before..

After most of the day with only a handful of trout and three long beach time escapades with Jesse the trout retriever the sun dipped enough to get the results we are looking for. I must confess the medium upstream wind and down stream flow combined with a high sun angle IS NOT prime dry fly conditions, but we are out for the fun of angling one fly and on the surface even if my Labrador was getting board with the lack of licking trout. As the sun reaches that magical two finger width over the horizon, shadows lengthen and our friend the cutthroat was obligated to rise. Nothing huge just a dozen 12 -15 inchers with one around 18 to round off the evening.

Bug of the day; size twelve flying ant,,,,the one with the red ass.

I will all ways take a strong finish to a day of fishing over a day with early success…

87 years young, what a blast fishing with such a distinguished gentleman..

The Yakima has proven to sustain good fishing for over a week in a row now without any major set backs in conditions. Could it be that we are in for the steady flow of summer, finally at the beginning of JULY.

I hope so, as right now we can catch fish nearly at will on dries and nymphs. A stone and a soft hackle has proven to be a good nymphing combo or a yellow stimi size 8-6 or gold chubby will get it done on the surface with the required drag free drift of coarse..

Look for increased summer stone activity in the next week then a big push of them on the next full moon in the lower canyon and continued caddis, pmd and brown drakes above in the Cle Elum area. White and grey streamers are productive on the thunderstorms and first thing in the AM.

I have some open dates in the next week give me a call 253-307-3210 for more details or EM jeff@brazdasflyfishing.com..

Looking like MONDAY is the best dry fly day in the next week…GET YA SOME!

Saturday

Saturday Night

Sunday

Sunday Night

Monday

Monday Night

Tuesday

Tuesday Night

Wednesday

After what has seemed an eternity the fishing weather has turned for the best, stable flows, no wind, good vis, mixed in with an eager Labrador and a new friend. Floated the Yakima from Ringer to Mare’s starting at noon and pretty much caught rainbows the whole way, enjoyed some Libations, threw the dog dummy for Jesse and she had plenty of trout licking in and only lost 2 bugs thats what I would call near perfect…

Oh by the way I have plenty of open dates should someone want one or ten…….

Heading off fishing this AM on the Yakima, with Chente and Jesse the trout retriever, possibly the finest day of the month with great sunshine NO WIND oops I said it,,,,and level flows on all stretches who-hoo its going to be good!

The View

My New Clackacraft EDDY

I seldom do gear reviews because I seldom find something that is REALLY better than what we have, this is an exception!

With over 30 years on the sticks of a drifter I have floated a lot of miles of river in many different craft. Ten foot wood prams to 20 foot Aluminum jets on oars. There is hardly a drift boat made that I have not tried for at least a day or two, this is my 9^th drift boat and the best of them all as far as my fishing purpose goes. I was hesitant to jump on new styles and changes after being burned a few times on hype of LATEST AND GREATEST.

This time I can honestly say that Clackacraft has something real going here with this new EDDY style Low Profile boat, it really does handle better. With a sexy look of the low pro and the wind resistance of a skiff the new Eddy is the boat for fly fishermen.

Its great qualities go beyond its great looks.

It has much LESS PUSH from the rear that we get when an angler is fishing from behind the rower.

It MANUEVERS better through current like, on top of, the current with out slicing (the down river yank on the ass end from the current) not squirrely like, very manageable.

It SHUTTLES very well and maintains a good line effortlessly all the while running slower than the current with an easy back row. This is in itself will save your shoulders which is what rowers need to do most.

Here on the Yakima River the WIND is a big factor upon our boats and the low pro is essential to fishing here. The drawback in most low gunnel’s styles is running wave trains and boils where much of the water will come over at the side ahead and behind the oar stanchion on low sided boats this new Eddy seems to reduce that. The back of the boat sits higher just enough which gives it the good qualities we have here while maintaining wind resistance.

While trout fishing we anchor on spots a lot of times in faster water casting to slower bank side water, all the factors above improve the anchoring.

With hundreds of thousands of oar strokes behind me I can now look forward to the next few hundred thousand ahead with this new boat and re-discovering the enjoyment of rowing and fishing a quality drift boat for countless miles of river. For that I owe the guys at Clackacraft a big thanks as Guiding is a lifestyle and the drift boat is the vessle.

 Thank you…

 Maybe this new style will find its way to the standard sided boats for us steelhead anglers as well, just a hint there Clackacraft!

 Since my annual Mexico Permit and Bonefishing trip was postponed for the year I went on down to Florida to visit with Popa Mac aka Joe Macomber and met up with his family including his son, also Joe, whom you all know from video fame Lateral Line Media.

 Naturally we had to do a little family style tourism on the way and visited Key West, ( Duval Street at midnight is a must) the Everglades National Park where they frown on Alligator wrestling,,,well at least by the tourists, and some high end dining in a Pirate Ship by Key Largo, way over rated, same with those air-boat rides, over rated, not for anyone with half a mind of what Eco tourism should be.

The Tarpon fishing was eye opening to say the least, I was feeling rather confident when casting to boils and bubbles of tarpon that were just previously there but when it came to the real deal 6 ft Hearing at fifty foot out it was a different story.. I made ten casts at Tarpon that I could see well in the first three days, of which 6 were painfully blown. I must say in my defense that standing on a deck with fair sized chop and NO stand-up was tough, then add in a chrome submarine doing ten miles and hour with the wind was a little out of my normal target arena.  The third day was our day I was fishing with Joey Macomber this day, visibility was great for Marco Island and the wind as well as tide were in our favor. Still licking my wounds from two days before I thought it would be best for Joey and his new legs to stand on the turret first. Ten minutes later a single of 90 pounds offers up a thirty foot broadside shot and Joey places the fly on a good lead and strips the following fish to within 12 foot of the flats boat at which time the Tarpon engulfs the fly and explodes into the sky. Shaking and sweating from battle, 60 minutes later we are on top of him in a shallow trench, Joey says to Mark I feel like the rods going to break ,,,”na don’t worry keep pulling”,, two minutes later SNAP and we have an extra short stick and a jumping Poon with a trailing rod tip. These fish are as strong as they look and do not give in at all, we have the Tarpon at boat-side and gloved up Mark makes a good grab only to have the Tarpon head shake away drift under the boat and break off as the broken rod tip hangs on the gunwhale and the leader knot snags the rod tip.

Almost but not quite will just have to do on these fish!

Later that day we move into some back bays looking for “layed up” fish and find two. One at an undo-able cast of 7 feet, yes 7 feet and blows up before we can back off. the next was to be my grand finally, Mark spots a 70 pounder just barely off the mangroves, I throw 3 foot in front but he cant see the fly as vis in the back country is under two foot, I throw 2.5 ft in front still can’t see the fly, so what the hell I over correct and toss it right over the Tarpon’s dorsal and up under the mangroves, he kindly J hooks around and hammers the fly on the third strip to all of us, a surprise, I feebly set the hook and stay pinned a total of 4 seconds not even good enough for “rodeo rules” while my hard won Tarpon leaps off giving us the fin..Three days, 13 good shots and one jump off..

That night we all head out night fishing for Snook just to get some revenge at finned devil’s in a big way, catching fish at every dock and light we find, not the Tarpon I came for but a real blast and a great way to polish off a few beers on my final night in Naples.

The next day Lisa and I headed off to the Keys to meet up with Greg Bricker from Montana he is working on his captains license and wants to fish as much as possible. Here in Tarpon land, the “Holy Grail” is Islamorada Florida we find Tarpon by the dozens and make great shots and totally redeem my previous feeble efforts at making the shot under pressure, but to no avail they were not in a biting mood that day. Bricker has his spots down pat we were casting to Tarpon nearly every ten minutes and some schools were thirty fish strong, but that is fishing, I feel lucky to have done it and can’t wait till next May, I all ready have my Keys days booked with Greg and hope to revisit those flats on Marco Island with Mark and take my chances again at the silver king.

Next May it’s two saltwater trips, one to relive Florida Tarpon and one to Mexico and the Sea of Cortez for Dorado and Roosterfish on the fly.

Pitifully hopeful Brazda….