#thomas and thomas

[my-dear-ceramic-frogs]

[emrldwtranglers]

November 7, 2018 Welcome Mikela! We are beside ourselves excited to welcome Mikela Rigney to our Women’s Program as an instructor and guide.  You will begin to see more of her showing up over the next few months as she gets herself ready for the spring season.  You can read a bit more about her on our guide profile page here. Steelhead are on our brain as we move into the winter season but as we speak many of the rivers for chrome are a bit out of shape with more rain coming.  The Skykomish has a few fish in right now as does the Klickitat and Grande Ronde.  Not a ton of fish but some and there have been some of these magnificent fish looking up for skating flies which is maybe the most exciting way to connect with one.  Watch for flows to drop here shortly and be ready to get on the water! The Yakima River had a slight bump in flow and was tainted with some color from some of its tributaries as a result some of the rain we have received lately.  It is on the drop and the fish are still very active towards BWO’s and smaller streamers on the swing and strip.  We have been spending a ton of time lately exercising our trout spey rods of choice being the Thomas and Thomas DNA 3wt and the Loomis IMX Pro 3wt, both of which are nothing short of a blast to cast and create a very different perspective of this fishery.  Come by and get caught up on the latest. Puget Sound has been having some good and difficult tides.  Super high water forces you to find access where a back cast is possible which is yet another reason the trout spey has been so much fun because the new lines from Scientific Angler and Airflo which are integrated shooting heads make fishing the Sound possible with this set up completely possible.  Salmon are about finished for now which means the SRC’s are super comfortable and curious so this is a great time to be on the water with baitfish patterns.  Our final thought here is as we move into this time of year, when all the rivers are puking chocolate milk which is going to happen, the Sound is just sitting there with clear water and fish waiting for something to do so get to know it NOW. As always, we are here to help you be successful on the water, any water so don’t hesitate to come by and ask questions or call, email or even face-time.  We look forward to talking with you soon.

[poachingencouraged]

[poachingencouraged]

Owen having a dart.

[emrldwtranglers]

April 18, 2018  Looking Ahead We are going to give steelhead season a woop woop and high five for being better than expected.  While there are a handful of days left in the season here in WA on a couple of different rivers, we are closing the book on it.  As usual, those of us in the “swing only” world of guiding and there aren’t many did very well this season.  Summer is almost upon us, some great opportunities to swing for summer steel so please be in touch to book. The Yakima, when not in roller coaster mode has been fishing well.  March Browns and BWO still up high.  It has been cold but there seems to be some better weather coming soon so expect caddis and PMD to be here before you know it.  While we don’t talk about it much, we DO GUIDE the Yakima and are happy to get you on the river with our perspective.  One thing we are doing different from most is swinging flies with trout spey’s.  This is a blast, shows you a different side to the Yak by approaching it from down and across perspective.  We have some great micro spey rods as well from Echo, Thomas and Thomas, Winston and Gloomis.  Come give it a try especially if steelhead season didn’t provide enough tugs to completely scratch that itch. Puget Sound is in its mid spring mode...watch the wind, deal with the rain, know the tide and be prepared to change beaches.  Fish are definitely there but are already on the move.  Pink and Chum fry are abound, as are Polychaete, Copapod and Euphasid so have a good smattering in the box! Coming up, we have bass and carp as well.  Carp tourney is on July 20 and 21 so if you fancy yourself as an accomplished angler, come give these bad boys a try.  Banks Lake, more details on the website are in the store.  Jason has been sniffing out some cool bass trips too so let us know if you would like to broaden your horizons. Lastly, it is almost creek time.  One of our favorite times of year where we open Pandora’s Box to you on where to go, when and why.  Most of the small waters open June 2nd but most won’t really be available to safely navigate until later in the month.  This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come in and get a game plan together, put pins on a map and be ready to jump when the drill sergeant says to!  These are Washington’s greatest trout asset in our opinion as they are numerous and few anglers pay any attention to them.  We have spent 20 years playing around up in these parts and are happy to share what we know so come on in. Finally, our EWA Fly Fest is June 2nd as well.  Come try all the rods we carry with all possible lines and get professional instruction on the various fisheries in our region.  Sage, Winston, Thomas and Thomas, Echo, Loomis, Scott, Hardy and Redington will all be there.  FREE LUNCH and our staff cook-off, 9am - 4pm at Me Kwa Mooks Park in West Seattle.  Always a good time...happy spring everyone. Photo Caldwell “Rohr” Rohrbach

[charlottecreekcustomrods]

#stryker rods working hopper droppers on the Farmington river fishing for trout nothing like a day on the water!

[charlottecreekcustomrods]

Finding the best Performing Rod Blanks

We have been building custom fishing rods for over 3 decades! Covid has reimagined a good protion of the custom fishing rod blank industry. Many of the smaller hi=performance fishing rod blank companies have disapeared thanks to Covid 19. With the advent of covid it has also spawned a new generation of performance fishing rod blanks.

We have spent the last year, searching for top performing blanks in our industry and their have been a lot of great advances as a result of this shift in world economics and the way we do business and market products. SOme of the best movesin the indutry have been with some of the previously known leaders in the industry!

Joe Goodman, previously a designer for #ThomasandThomasflyrods has joined the team at @Diamondbackflyrods heading up their resurgance to the top performance fly rods in the industry. We had a conversation with Joe about a month ago when we were busy trying to find top performance rods in the industry. Joe very humbly spoke about his vision of the company and the new blanks he was designing. Targeting the resurgence of the company to its roots, in Vermont, and building off his experience as one of the foremost designers at T&T.

Joe has begun redesigning Diamondback rods starting with their Nymph rod line and is currently working on redesigning their traditional rod line which will be introduced starting in the fall.

We are genuinely excited since we have been a huge fan of Diamondback Fly rods since 1992. Their rods had always been one of the top performers we relied upon that our opinion was they outperformed the majority of the big names for decades. Its not always about the blank its about how the blank is built.

We believe that most of what you are paying for in the big names is their advertising expenses, we have taken some of the most cost effective blanks and built rods that outperform the big boys of the industry and beleive that their are fisherman that believe they have to have the most expensive rods in the industry so they can have that recignition. We believe its all about the presentation and the fisherperson (LOL), the rods we build are far more cost effective and our customers say they outperform anything they have used in the past. After 3 decades of building rods, we believe it is more important to match the blanks action to the cadence of the user than anything.

Every rod we build is spine aligned on the neutral axis prior to being built and then each section after the eyes are installed is carefully aligned so the rod reacts in its best possible orientation (More details on rod building physics another day) and will outperform any rod in its class.

Yes high end rod blanks are good to own but a moderate high quality blank properly assembled will out perform any of the big dogs that cost over $1000. We have proved this theory for over 30 years! Some of the blanks we have had great success with are not well known, we recently have built rods with Mystic Blanks that our customer replaced some of the big dog names with and swears he has never thrown a fly as efffortlessly or as far with the rod we built them. I was so impressed I replaced my 9 & 10 wt salt water rods with their Mystic Reaper and was incredibly surprised with its performance.

For this season we have aligned our shop with a few new companies that we really believe are top performers! @Strykerrods www.strykerrods.us this is a true US based rod blank company that has its heart in the performance fishin blank world, they do make finished rods, but we prefer to build them for you. If you have a question, call them they answer the phone and are incredibly knowledgeable and will direct you to the correct rod for what you want to fish for!

We have also made contact with an international supplier that makes blanks for 5 of the big dogs in the industry and we have aquired the ability to import the smae blanks that you would typically pay $500-$750 for at a fraction of the price and they are the same design as what you would be paying $1000-$1500 for a finsihed rod and we can build off the same blanks for a fraction of the cost!

SO for all your custom rod needs give us a call at 845-444-2873 or 607-376-7775, we at Perfect FLies and Freds Custom Rods, believe that custom is just that, custom built for the way you fish and what your specific custom rod needs are, From trout rods on small streams to Surf Rods and everything in between, we are your source for custom built fishin rods!