Tony: I always enjoy your reports. Tell Hans hello for all of us. I met him on one of his trips to Utah. Interesting guy, loaded with information. Take care. Hope to see you again in March
Larry Johnson Spriingville, Utah >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/6/2005 8:57:32 AM >>> First of all I have no commercial interest in these rods. I am pretty sure Byard will be handling them in the near future. I had mentioned in a previous post that I got one of the experimental blanks. I had been invited on a guide trip and would of liked to try out the rod. I was going to wrap it myself but due to time restrictions I would not get to it for several weeks. Jeff said, Get the guides in place where you want them along with the grip and reel seat and I will wrap it for you so you can use it on Wednesday (yesterday). I picked up the rod on Tuesday afternoon went home and lawn cast it. I found with my casting style, I was not loading the rod with the 4 wt line,( mind you I said this is an experimental 4 wt blank). I then tried a 5 wt line and the rod came to life. That was it had to get things done for the upcoming Guide trip in the morning. Yesterday morning was a clear bright morning. The guide picked up Fred and myself at the Flyshop at 8 am. He decided to take us to the Trophy area at the dam on the White. The catching can be tough there but the fish are big. We started out wading and casting to rises but the fish did not cooperate. A cigarette but came floating down and it had rises to it all the way down. This should of given us a hint on what was going on, more on that later. The horn sounded telling us they were going to release water in five minuets, When the water started running, it sometimes turns the fish on and Fred hooked into and landed a 2 pound Rainbow. Water was getting too high to fish safely so we launched the boar . Headed up to the dam and drifted down then made runs back up. The guide rigged us up with large white strike indicators, We were getting a lot of hits in the indicators but none on the flies. That again should of been telling us what the trout were taking. After drifting for a couple of hours with no luck. I had commented that we might tie a piece of white foam to a hook and try that. The guide then dug in the bottom of his pack and came up with a big white deer hair bass bug and a white foam thing??????. We tied them on and about the second ot third cast, Fred connected. It was a football rainbow of about three pounds. Then I connected, a Cutt that was 2+ pounds. These fish had the bellies so full, they looked this they would burst. We finally figured out what was going on. Shad were coming through the generators, not normal for this time of the year. The trout were keyed in on the shad. I did not count the number of trout we hooked but did not land but it was more that we brought to the net. For the next few hours it was a lot of action. Fred got one Rainbow that had to go 4 pounds and all of my trout were over 2 pounds. We were on the river almost 10 hours. Now about the rod. This trip gave it a good workout. At times it was bent in a fill 180 degrees with the tip under the boat. I had no breakoffs with 5X tippet. The rod is on the soft side and is designed to cast and work like a bamboo rod. I would say, Ray hit it real close as I do fish bamboo. I will get with Ray at the Conclave tomorrow and have him cast the rod at the Casting pool. He did not get to cast it before I picked it up. Looking forward to getting mt 2 wt blank. Will be doing a Guide trip with Hans on Monday, will give the rod another workout. Tony
