Lilly Pond Bass Bug rod.

This has been a bit of a journey for me, the idea started actually last winter.I live in the burbs of Chicago and as such I don't get to trout water as much as I would like, always been this way. I spend most of my time on the water chasing bass.I love glass rods for there ease of casting, it fits my casting style very well.I have owned a number of heavier rods that I fished for bass but wanted something I thought is somewhat bass specific.The idea came and went last winter and then popped back into my head this past spring.I needed to get the blank made for this rod, the first thought was glassmaster Mike McFarland .He had said last fall he was not selling blanks anymore so I thought this was a real long shot.I wrote him with my idea, a rod designed for bass fishing, throwing big deer hair bugs,lead eye things etc..maybe eight to nine feet in length and an eight weight if possible.I sent that email off with the thought of no response.A few days later Mike wrote back and said he'd like to do this project, he thought it was a cool idea and he had an idea for it.He asked if I would be interested in having them rolled in black S glass, he said he had enough material to do a limited run of these, I thought it sounded awesome.I had the blanks getting started and was thinking of the reel seat, I wanted exclusive to this rod line. I talked to Joel Lemke of Lemke Concepts to do this seat, I like his hidden thread design alot and asked if he could do it in all metal, he agreed, some photos and design adjustments later I had my seats.I have finally got the finished rod together of the viewing public to see.I'm call this the Lilly Pond Bassbug rod. It's 8 1/2 feet2 piece, 8wt and a cannon! It will serve the needs of bug fishers and alight saltwater as well, yet to be tested there though.I hope you like this rod.

Finally, they arrive!

I have not posted anything new recently because nothing was happening, nothing new anyeay. I hatched an idea last fall and it fell by the wayside during the winter months and resurfaced again this Spring.Being in the North suburbs of Chicago I spend most of my time chasing Bass.I'd love to get up to the driftless more often but can't afford to do so.I've been fishing glass rods for years now, and this season having sold my primary Bass buggin'rod I've been fishing the old Loomis GL3 9 foot 7 wieght, nicerod but not close to my old Vintage Scott yellow glass!I spoke to Mike McFarland of the McFarland Rod Co.to see if he would be interested in taking on my project. Some months earlier he said he was not going to be selling blanks anymore, I thought for sure I'd get shot down,a few days later Mike wrote me back and said he would like to help me out, I was pretty happy with that! We worked out some details and he agreed to start amking the blanks for a Glass Bass rod.
The Blanks are made of Mikes stock of S Glass he had form his purchase of the old Daimondback blanks making equipment. He thought it would be a good match for a rod of this type, I agreed.I also wanted to dress the rods a bit different to set them apart from alot of what's seen out there. I turned to Joel Lemke,a fantastic reel seat maker,formerly with Struble.I explained what I was looking for and he said he had a design already made and he'd send me pics of them,they were just what I was looking for.He said he had a few small tweaks to make in the design and they would be ready for production.I recieved, after a long wait the blanks from Mike today, and the reel seat last week. I'm offering the rods, they will be 8'6" 8wt.2 piece configuration. I'm going to wrap them in Black,REC Recoil guides.I'm not doing a full custom rod to try to make these an affordable rod.Any questions please feel free to email me.

Pen to Paper.......and flies!

Just thought I'd post these up, every now and again I get around to a little drawing,I do most of these in my car,waiting to start work, I have to wait occasionaly for co workers to arrive so I do some scetching while I wait.A couple of trout and my first Smallmouth Bass.I tied a few interesting sub-surface Bass flies, new designs, hope to test 'em out soon!

More Bass Bugs.

I have gone sort of off the deep end with the bugs!!!I've rerally been enjoying getting re aquainted with deer hair,trying different color combos and skirt materials,I have many ideas for more bugs just need to find the time to tie 'em!

I must be insane!

Went north on Saturday for one of only a few trips to the Driftless each season.I got on the water around 6:30 am, beat the heat a little bit.I found the fish to be very easy to bite the fly, the Pink Squirrels and Copper Johns were the ticket, the Pink as usual did very well. I don't know why I go up there with my pack full of everything I could need, I fish the same three patterns the whole time I'm there, I jusy need a Sucrettes box with 6 of each pattern and tippet material.I fished one stretch of water that I frequent and took around 20-30 fish there,like I said they were very agreeable! Met up with my father-in-law on another stretch of water around 10:00 am,caught several Browns there then moved on to a spot further downstream, I was only able to land one nice Brown on a hopper pattern.The sun was getting high in the sky by this point and I was on FIRE!!!!I called it quits for the day, time to get out of my waders and into my street clothes and chug a lot of water.I thought I must be insane to be out there boiling, no water, in waders!!!!

More bugs.

Spent some of the last couple days fooling around with the deer hair, as I said in my last post I don't spend a lot of time working with deer. I'm really starting to lov working with it, I finally got it down so I don't have a huge mess on my table after all the bugs are trimmed.I'm gonna fish some of these soon. These have no eyes on them yet as I want to get a cautery tool to burn some eye sockets for some nice eyeballs!!

Stackin' n' Packin'!!!

I was asked by Cameron Mortenson of the Fiberglass Manifesto if I could tie a bass bug in a red,white and blue theme for his 4th of July post on the Manifesto, I was happy to tie something up for him and send it off right away.I don't do a lot of deer hair bugs, I usually keep them simple on ly one or two colors and don't reallt do anything complex. After doing Camerons fly I started playing with a bit more complex stuff than I normally do.