Fly Fishing

Flashback Friday Supplement: Help Identify This Unmarked Bamboo Rod!

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Quill Gordon

Went to the feed store the other day and decided to make the trip over Terrible Mountain worthwhile by stopping in at one of my favorite antique “malls” in search of material for a future Flashback Friday feature. I found a few not-so-old issues of Outdoor Life, two USDA Yearbooks I don’t already have in my collection (1928 & 1935), a cool old snapshot from a fishing camp in 1924 and a partial set of the 1916 Audubon Society Pocket Bird Collection Educational Leaflets.

"Headquarters Camp, Wakely Pond NY, 1924"

In the corner of one of the last booths I visited I noticed a beat up rod tube, missing the top, with a price tag sticking out that read “Fish Pole $XX”. Tacked to the wall of the booth was a sign that read “20% OFF CASH SALES” which brought the price down to “$YY” if I wanted said fish pole.

The label on the tube indicated it originally held a bait casting rod but what came out is definitely not a bait caster.

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Categories: Flashback Fridays, Fly Fishing | Tags: , , , , , | 7 Comments

Testament of a Fisherman, Deconstructed

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Quill Gordon

John Voelker (pen name Robert Traver) wrote his “Testament of a Fisherman” in 1964. The world has changed quite a bit in 47 years and so have anglers (a more up to date, gender-neutral term). I am not yet an old codger, pining away for the good old days (more like a middle-aged long-hair with an appreciation for fine fire-water and bamboo rods), but I think it would be interesting to take Traver’s words from nearly a half-century ago and see how they stand up to the world we live in today.

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Categories: Fly Fishing, nature | Tags: , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Vermont Hand Crafted Tenkara Rods

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Quill Gordon

Tenkara is an old Japanese method of fishing, conceived as a way to yank fish from small streams. Generating a lot of interest lately, its American adherents are practically swooning. It turns out that my friend Eugene has been using similar methods for years and his desire to simplify the gentle art of angling (see “… teach a man to fish …”) has naturally led him to Tenkara. Feeling uniquely qualified, he is anxious to share his expertise. He’s also fairly sure he can make a buck or two doing it.

Eugene has tried his hand at home decor (see “A Craft Project With My Friend, Eugene”) and he has dabbled in the culinary arts (see “Mouse Pie”). His qualifications are indeed unique but I sometimes wonder about him as an entrepreneur, especially when he involves his pal Purly (see “The Disappearance of Ethan Allen”). Still, I do what I can to help them out, usually against my better judgement.

With a reminder — nay, a plea — to obey all fish and game laws, I give you:

EUGENE & PURLY’S FREE RANGE, ORGANIC, RENEWABLE, HAND CRAFTED, VERMONT ARTISANAL TENKARA RODS  Continue reading →

Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, Stories About My Good Friend, Eugene, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Fall Rituals

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Quill Gordon

Certain events mark the passing of the seasons here at Fish in a Barrel Pond, taking place year after year, but they are not dependent on calendars and clocks. Sure, I can tell you with some certainty that my annual ritual of draining and blowing out water lines in the camps will be done shortly before dark, on the last Sunday of October but after that all bets are off. Continue reading →

Categories: Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Quill Gordon

The end of the season is nigh, here at Fish and a Barrel Pond, but it ain’t over yet and I should have known better than to write like it was as I did a couple of weeks ago when I got all sentimental and gooey in my post “Mostly Photos, from Somewhere in Vermont“. A string of sunny days full of blue skies and brook trout interspersed with starry nights scented of bourbon and wood smoke can do that to a guy.

It’s been almost six months since the 2010 fishing season began for the members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society and it was nice to spend another Saturday night by the fire, sipping toddies and swapping stories with a swell bunch of fellows but on Sunday afternoon, as I stood in the road waving good-bye, a chill, northern breeze boxed my ears and tossed my hat in the ditch, reminding me it is the end of their season, not mine.

All week long that breeze blew. It took the sunshine away, replacing it with steady rain, and by Thursday afternoon the breeze was a flag-shredding gale and, after a brief lull, the rain became sleet.

You pay your money and you take your chances when you come to Fish in a Barrel Pond, especially in October. Some folks, with little apparent effort, have a fine time no matter the conditions, while others don’t try at all and are miserable, rain or shine. Continue reading →

Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, Humor, nature | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Match Game

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Quill Gordon

Search the internet and you will find plenty of fly fishing experts, willing and able to befuddle you beyond all reason with their grasp of the sport. I am not one of them.

I do like to touch upon important aspects of fly fishing from time to time, though, as I did with “Fishing Hurts,” where I discuss the back cast, and with “Teach a Man to Fish,” where I discuss delicate presentations and sportsmanship in general. I am able to observe a lot of fishermen, both on the water and off, and over the years I have reached some very important conclusions regarding this peaceful pastime and its practitioners. One of those conclusions  — painful as it is to admit — is that a six-year-old with a $20.00 Spiderman fishing pole and a tub of worms can catch more fish than a 50-year-old with a $600.00 fly fishing rig.

There, I said it. I am also nearly certain that a pink marshmallow will attract more trout than a Royal Wulff and corn will generally outperform the most intricate woven-body nymph. Continue reading →

Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, nature | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tropical Rain, Then a Hard Frost

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Quill Gordon

The season is coming to an end here at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Four more weeks before I drain the water lines, close the cottages and take one of my legendary end-of-season naps but, in the meantime, the members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society are squeezing in as much time here as they can.

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Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Summer’s End

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Quill Gordon

There are five weeks remaining in the season, here at Fish in a Barrel Pond, but summer is over. The leaves began turning early, the trees giving up on any hopes for rain and packing it in for the year. Strange sounds fill the nights as owls and coyotes prowl in the moonlight. The Pleiades are visible and I’m sure if I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. I’d see Orion, too. The strings of geese passing overhead in the darkness surely do. Continue reading →

Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Dead Flies

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Quill Gordon

With a fairly steady stream of anglers plying the waters of Fish in a Barrel Pond I find flies everywhere. I pick them up and if they are intact I add them to my boxes. If not, I keep them anyway. Mangled and broken, tattered and frayed, shredded and unwound, dropped, stepped on and left behind, it sometimes seems that I accumulate as many un-fishable flies as good ones. I find them in boats, on the ground in the parking lot and stuck in the nap of rugs at the doors of the camps. No fly lasts forever.

Most people wouldn’t give these worthless bits of feather, hair and thread a second look but I just can’t throw them away or leave them behind, rusting away to nothing.

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Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, Rural Life | Tags: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Slow Evening on the Pond

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Quill Gordon

The air is warm, the water is warm, and the fishing is, well, slow. During the day the trout are hunkered down, hanging around spring holes and the feeder streams where the little dribbles of cool water still flow in (boy oh boy, do we need rain). In the evening a few small pods of fish move around, sipping mayflies and other insects blown in by the warm breeze, but a summer’s worth of fishing pressure has made sneaking up on individual fish and groups of cruisers difficult. They’ve been educated and shy away from the boat. Long, accurate, delicate casts are the only way to hook up. 

I can do long, I can do accurate, and I can do delicate but all three at once is asking a bit much so I spend a fair amount of time just sitting, watching and waiting. Here’s some of what I saw on the pond two nights ago:

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Categories: Fly Fishing, Loons, nature, Rural Life | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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