Late Fall...

As you can probably tell by the frequency of posts,  October was a busy month for us. Despite TVA's best efforts to run possibly the most off the wall schedules of all time, we have still managed to stay busy, and find some really good fishing. The Clinch especially has been productive with each trip yielding some bright, healthy rainbows in the upper teen range and better. The colors on these fish are fantastic! Despite rainbows being Spring spawners I would swear some are sporting spawning colors.

The Holston appears to have had a good holdover from the Summer heat but we haven't had much opportunity to fish it because of inconsistent water schedules. Hopefully soon,  TVA will get where they want to be on the lake levels and begin showing some rhyme or reason to the generation.

On a personal note we had a great grouse hunting outing to Wisconsin this year! Got to hunt all five days which is almost a record for us. It generally rains or snows at least a couple of days while we're there but this year was an exception. Plenty of birds, good dog work, and lots of shooting. Fun trip!

My friend Peter Petruzzi sent me this picture of a brookie he caught in the Shenandoah Valley a few days ago on a cane rod I made for him this past Winter and I just had to share it here. I've been looking for a good picture to use to start a cane rod page on this site and Peter came through for me in spades! Cane rod building got me into the business of fly fishing back in the early nineties when I thought I wanted to make it a full time profession. I quickly discovered I would much rather spend my Spring through Fall season on the river than in a dark rod shop planing bamboo, but I still enjoy making a few rods every Winter to pick up some off season cash and hopefully to build something that will ultimately outlast the maker. I still love cane rods, especially short light ones. Stepping into a mountain stream with a dry fly and a well made cane rod is like stepping back in time, they definitely have an appeal all their own.

Hope everyone gets a chance to do some late Fall and Winter fishing this year!

Mike..