My friend, Mark Latham, was a regular visitor to the shop and my home.  Mark and I knew each other for 35 years.  Last month he texted me from Texas.  He said he was going to visit my older son in Del Rio, then head back to California for openers on the Upper Sac and McCloud Rivers.

He died unexpectedly on the first of this month.

I was asked by his widow, Pam, to speak at his service .  She asked me if I would take Mark’s remains home with me for a service up here later in the year.  I agreed.  Pam wanted the service earlier in the month, but I was not available.

She asked if the 27th would work, and I agreed.  Sandy and I went down to Monterey County, and attended the service.  Afterwards, we visited Mark and Pam’s house and Mark’s son, Spencer, gave us Mark’s cremains.  We drove back to Dunsmuir on Saturday.  Late Saturday afternoon, we walked Mark down the back of the house to the river.  We put him next to Ted Fay’s plaque, and took this picture.

He got to sit on one of his favorite places on this river.  On opening day.  For the last time.

Goodbye, Mark.

• Short paragraph on fishing bamboo enters you in contest for box of dry flies.
  http://t.co/QoccvlR0 #

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Dan traveled to Dunsmuir to build his first bamboo fly rod.  A Norcal Resident, Dan first learned to fly fish as a boy, and fished all the rivers of the lost coast for steelhead!

Dan chose my version of the Payne 100 as his build rod.  The 100 is a 7 1/2 foot 2 piece rod ideal for small streams, and in Dan’s case, bluegill as well!  Bamboo chosen is the oven tempered gold-toned bamboo that is the most popular look at Raine Hollowbuilt Bamboo Fly Rods.

There are some great shots of Dan splitting cane.  Using the 3 legged widget for straightening the strips make the job go by fast! The strips came out great.  At the end of the day, Monday, Dan had split and straightened enough strips for the butt and tip sections.  Tuesday morning the plan is to continue straightening strips for a second tip.

Tuesday, Dan was able to straighten the remaining strips, including a set for a second tip.  The planing  form was set for the butt section of a Payne 100,  slightly modified.  One set of strips was prepped, with great attention paid to making sure the strips were dead flat through the nodes.  The plane irons were sharpened, and away he went.

By late afternoon, Dan had finished planing out the strips for the butt section.  The strips were dry-fit and inspected.  All strips were deemed near-perfect, so he went on to prep the next set of strips for a tip section.

Wednesday had Dan finish up the planing on the bamboo rod tips and he glued up both sections on the Raine Better Binder prototype.  The day finished up with Dan gluing up the rings for his handgrasp.

Thursday was just like Christmas, and the package to unwrap was a brand-new bamboo fly rod.  Most of the day was spent cleaning up the two bamboo rod blanks, cutting them to length and fitting up the nickle silver ferrules.   Dan chose to blacken the nickle silver and the contrast with the gold tone bamboo is striking!

This class “bled over” a little bit.  Dan stayed through the weekend, did a little pruning on the wisteria out front,  and got a good start on a second tip.  After test casting his rod, Dan and I headed for the river to give the bamboo fly rod its baptism.

This is not bamboo rod building related. It is a video of the Academy’s Parachute team. My younger son is the one at the beginning of the video with the full face shield. Just being the proud Papa.

Here are 2 bamboo fly rods leaving the shop this week.  Built for husband and wife, they are “twins”!  Both bamboo rods feature the new LDT option, giving the fly fisher a choice between line sizes.  These bamboo fly rods are medium flamed, with uplocking threaded barrel reel seats, with complementary redwood burl wood inserts.

• 5 fish without moving my feet. What a riot! #

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• Fishing October Caddis dries on the Upper Sac is like an Easter Egg hunt for adults! #

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Mark M. has started building his bamboo fly rod here at Raine Hollowbuilt Fly Rods.  He chose the 8 foot, 5 weight “Upper Sac Special” for his first bamboo fly rod.  Below is the slide show of his build, as it happens.  As an aside, Mark brought his own Walton Powell Hexagraph rod, built for him by Walton himself.  Mark took Walton fishing on the Bitterroot years ago, and the rod maker sent him a rod as a gift!

Notice that during the bamboo rod building process that we lost electricity!  We were working by lantern light from 11 am to 5 pm on Wednesday.  Just shows to go ya that you can build a bamboo fly rod without electricity!  Mark signed his rod and plans to give it to his father for Christmas!

Dunsmuir Rod Company Hosts 2011 Rodmaker's Gathering

Breakfast at McQuire’s Restaurant in Dunsmuir, Ca.  More images to come!

• Why some rodmaking students are better than others. http://t.co/27fr4Ysk #

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