Hobby Sports: 2

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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

NAC Micro FY49 2 3 Weight Fly Rod

A few years ago I found a little gem while in a Tokyo fly shop. It was the NAC Micro FY49 #2/3 fly rod. This is a 49" 6 piece 2/3 weight. I was told that it was made in Japan although nowhere on the rod does it says so. Its an absolute niche product and I dont even think its popular in its home country of Japan. I use it almost exclusively now for our local wild trout waters. The action is soft and slow. Glass rod slow. I havent tried it with a 2 weight as of yet but I think its best with a 3. All that I have had cast it, they all seem to really like the little rod. If I ever break it, I can almost guarantee that youll see me crying as its almost irreplaceable. I can not even find them in Japanese websites. Im not sure if they even make them anymore.

The blank is a deep gloss green.

The rod separates into 6 pieces making this rod a very convenient pack rod.

The handle and reel seat insert are made of the same wood material. Im not quite sure what wood it is but it appears to be a hardwood that has some nice figure. The reel seat is uplocking which would make one think given its small size to be off balanced but when I put a Galvan OB1 on it, the rod balances right toward the tip of the handle.

Wraps are the green and blend nicely into the blanks. The components are double footed appear to be TiCH gunsmoke.

The entire package is quite small and I have in the past placed it in the rear pocket of my Simms fishing vest as I hiked into the San Gabriel river.

2010 Hunting Season Part 2

Dec.24
JPF. No birds seen or heard. Usually a great spot, JPF failed to give us any birds. I thought given the wet season this place should have been crawling with birds. Ed had never taken a quail and I was hoping to get him his first one here. I was wrong.

Dec. 28 Wister.

Foretunately our Wister hunt was much better than our previous hunts. Birds were definately moving. We saw several hundred of all types, pintails, widegon, gadwalls, teals, spoonies, and snows.

Ed took three greenwinged teals, I took my first Gadwall. I took a drake greenwing but when I went to retreive it I got stuck in the mud and the bird managed to make it up the bank and hide. I took 24 shots and it was not until the last two shots where I was able to connect. Both shts were pretty fanatastic shots. I missed all the easy ones.

Dec. 29 CBF

I promised Ed I would get him his first quail. I took him to an area that always produces birds in a wet season. This day was no different. The first area 871Plot we managed to flush 30 birds, unforetuantely the area was so thick it was hard to get a bead on them. i decided to move to CBF and once we got out of the car 20 birds flushed. we chased and I managed to take one bird with my Darne. This was the first bird I ever taken with the double. Kaiser went to reteive it and the bird ran on him. The bird ran under a tree and Kaiser lost him.

Ed then had a shot a hit it right in the behind. Feathers flew everywhere. It hit the ground hard. Given how the bird tumbled I taught it should have been an easy retrieve. But just like the other bird, this quail was nowhere near it fell. Kaiser could not find the scent to track it. I was pissed. Eventually we managed to flush a covey of 50+ in one of the draws. Unforetuantely I am not used to the left sided safety on the Darne. Its slow to manipulate. By the time I take the safety off the birds are out of range. Since we were in the draw and the birds flushed out to the flats I could not determine where they landed. We got out of the draw and tried to locate them. Ed managed one. His first ever quail. I came home with a donut. Its been a long time since I ever been skunked on quail. This year (which is a good year) its happened to me twice.

Owens Valley Waterfowl Hunt Day 2

I slept in on accident this morning as it was bone chilling cold. It actually was a good thing as by the time I made it to the pond I wanted to deke up, I found it was frozen solid. I would have been pissed had I woke up early just to find out it was a waste of time. I spent the whole morning exploring for new areas, basically I wasted the whole morning driving around missing exits or making it to roads that were closed due to snow.

Bill told me of the area he hunted just before Christmas, I tried to make it there but the road was too sketchy for me to go it alone. Since I was in the area I checked out a few watering holes that I never seen, of course they too were frozen solid. So I turned back and headed to the lowlands. I drove around looking for an area to jump shoot some ducks. After sometime I managed to finally find an area that I could actually walk along the river. I parked and after about fifty yards, I flushed a drake mallard and took him with the right barrel loaded with Bismuth number 5 load and he buckled as I was tracking him down, fifteen more mallards flushed and I took another drake I didnt track him as Kaiser jumped off the 8 foot bank toward the river. I knew at least the birds fell on the opposite side within the reddish wood branches. The river was too fast for Kaiser and he was reluctant to go in. I climbed down and had to pick him up and put him back on the bank. I rushed to the car and put on my waders and headed out with Kaiser to find a spot to cross together.

The banks on this section were too high so I put Kaiser back in the River and headed out myself. I managed to cross and struggled to make it up the bank on the opposite side. I looked through the vegetation and spent 45 minutes trying to find at least one of those birds. No luck. I went back to the truck and drove 20 minute to find a bridge to cross to get the other side. Finally reaching the spot I let Kaiser out to see if his nose could find the birds but unfortunately I was not exactly sure where the hit the ground. After about 30 minutes I gave up as we were running out of sun. When I lose birds, I get pissed, I get even more pissed when they are fat mallards especially when it was my first double on ducks and would have been Kaisers first mallard. Oh well I guess thats hunting.

I drove to another spot I thought would be a good spot for some pass shooting. Once I got out of the truck, three unknown ducks flushed and then a hen mallard flushed before I could even get my gun. We walked along the river as the sun was setting. Three small ducks flew overhead but were way out of range. And after that it was time to head back to the motel. Well see what tomorrow brings...

Day 2 Fishing New Water

My coffin. The Bibler Bivy

Sleeping in a bivy sucks. Being partially claustrophobic doesnt help any either. Add to that a slightly angled floor and you have a recipe for a rather sleepless night. Throughout the night I woke up every few hours. I choose to take the bivy to save weight and since it was going to be only one night I would just put up with the hassle.

According to The Weather Channel the nightly temps were to be in the mid 50s. While it was probably that warm around midnight, it was much cooler once the night progressed. Chul had just brought a silk sack liner to save weight, and before I was envious since I had brought my Marmot down bag. I had thought about buying just a silk sack before the trip and decided against it, Im glad I did. We woke just before 6am to a very brisk morning and made breakfast. I found some just add instant chili soup in its own cup at Ralphs and had that for breakfast. It was not good. Its funny, in the wild food always taste better. It must be the fresh air and maybe your sense are then heightened. But if food doesnt taste good out there then it must be really crappy. I managed to make it somewhat edible by putting in some Italian rosemary flat bread I had picked up at the Claros Italian market when I picked up the salami. They had cup-o-noodles and some random food as well. I think both our meals sucked. After our meal, I headed down to the water to fill every ones canteens. I took my fly rod with me. I casted to the pool Chul had landed his 14 incher and caught a 6-7 incher on the first cast. No other fish wanted to take. So I began filtering the water when they came down and asked if I wanted to start fishing or hike the trail to move upstream. We chose to take the trail.

The Forest Moon of Endor. Where are the Ewoks?

The goal was to reach the confluence, once we reached it we took the tributary to the right. We fished the first few pools without a single take. We moved on and found the area had been beat up pretty good. Trees, limbs were fallen all over and the water was low. After hiking no more than a quarter mile we decided to head out and hit the other water. This side looked much better. There were several pools along the way, many of them deep and holding several fish. I was hooking on to a lot of dinks cast after cast. It was like fishing the West Fork were each pool would produce 20 or more dinks. After seeing Erica not catching any fish in a big pool. I gave her mine and told her shell get a bunch of dinks out of there. And she did. Chul was on a pool up ahead and I saw him land a good fish in the 9-10 inch range. He gave me that hole and just like the one I gave Erica this one kept producing nonstop dinks, so I gave it to Erica and it continued to produce for her. I continued upstream to a beautiful huge deep hole that I lost a killer fish when my knot slipped.By this time Chul and Erica had made it to this hole and the whole had a enough room for all of us to cast. On Erikas first cast she manage a quality fish. I told her if it has my fly in its mouth I want it back. But it wasnt the same fish. I really wanted that fly back, a Skwala stonefly pattern since I only had one.

We continued to move on catching fish along the way. Erika was working a pool with two large fish. Chul and I were trying to spot for her but none of the two wanted to take. I left them and reached the huge waterfall with a huge plunge pool beneath it. I called Chul to get his ass up here and I managed a solid 10-11 incher on my foam ant. I caught several more in that range here. Chul had spotted a monster, probably 16 inches in there and missed him when it struck his fly. He did manage some fish out of here before the pool died. After that he tied on a streamer nymph and I decided to get crazy and tie a mini mouse pattern to try and entice that beast to take. No such luck. We decided to take lunch there and let the poole reset. I sat eating my rosemary flat bread and salami on a huge boulder overlooking the pool. In time the fish began rising again as a small BWO was going on. I told Chul and I retied a size 10 Monkey Bum emerger I read about in a old issue of FlyLife I have on the coffee table the other day. A fish took, a good one, but not likely the one Chul had chase his fly. It was JUST another 11 incher. Man, we are getting spoiled lately if a 11 incher is JUST a fish. On most of our local watersheds most people would give their left nut for a 11 incher. The beast would not take again this day so we moved back out of this section of water as it dead end here.

My last fish of the day.

We continued to fishing but at least for me the fishing slowed considerably. It may have been due to the fact we were moving downstream now and the fish were spotting us or that the heat was picking up and the fish were hunkering down in the shadows and undercuts. Who knows. The takes that did happen were soft sips and if you were too fast or too slow to set the hook youd miss the fish. We were making our way back to camp and I missed several good fish including one that Chul has missed on every visit here. We reached the pool that had the 14 incher and I casted my fly in there again. I had a very good fish chase only to look away once it swam near. Chul though that may have been the pig he landed yesterday. He wouldnt show his face again. So I moved on to other pool that I caught the solid fish yesterday. The dinks were aggressive in this pool but most were too small to hook onto my size 10 fly. I finally managed to get one on, it was a good his but not the same one I landed yesterday. But nonetheless it was a good fish to end the day with. I moved down where Erika was working a small pool that she and Chul saw a 14 incher. the fish would not take even though it would show himself from time to time. Erika named him Fred and we decided to load up on water before heading out.

We had packed most of our gear in the morning, all but our tents. So we started to breakdown those and pack out. While it did not bother me so much while fishing, my blister was going to be bothersome on the trail. I put a fresh piece of moleskin and took a large gauze pad and folded it over and tape it to my heel. That proved to do the trick. I was no bothered my it for the entire hike our of there. Its surprising how much better one can move when their feet dont hurt. The hike out was a breeze as its mostly down hill and the weather though warm was not nearly as hot. We found out that its not necessary to camp out here since the fishing ends at the waterfall but it was nice to spend the evening with friends under the stars. It was also nice to finally use my new ArcTeryx backpack which proved, unlike my last ArcTeryx pack, to be a keeper. I write this itching all over as the bugs were relentlessly feasting on my flesh. Damn bastards.