Gear: The Future of Fly Rods?

Could your next fly rod be in the shape of a triangle? The Angling times says it just might be:

This unique property is the result of Chris having based his design on the fact that an equal-sided triangle has more integral strength than a circle, a factor incorporated into the unique ‘extended Reuleaux’ shape of D-Flex’s cross section.
“I first developed the idea when learning to Spey cast while salmon fishing a few years ago,” explained Chris, whose 30-year career has been spent designing artificial blood vessels.
“A triangle isn’t practical for rolling rod blanks, but the shape I have come up with - a unique piece of geometry called a curve of constant width - is perfect for fishing rod manufacture,” he claimed.

RIP: Russ Blessing Inventor of the Wooly Bugger

If you tie flies, most likely the first fly you ever learned to tie was the Wooly Bugger. If you fly fish for trout there is also a very good chance that your first trout was on a Wooly Bugger. According to an article from Examiner.com, Russ Blessing, inventor of the Wooly Bugger passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Mr. Blessings simple and prolific contribution to the sport of fly fishing most certainly will live on in angler's fly boxes and tyers vises.

Singlebarbed Sends Schwag

Some Sixth Finger fly tying scissors showed up in our mail box today courtesy of fly fishing innovator and brownline guru K. Barton of Singlebarbed.com fame. Now if we can figure out where the movers put out fly tying kit we will give them a try. In the mean time, they work great on our salt and pepper chin beard.

I had my “Ah-ha” moment last year while doing a little research on surgical scissors. I stumbled across a design that looked promising, bought a couple of sets to try, and liked the result but also recognized it had shortcomings.
Without a foundry and metallurgical skills, I managed to mock up a pair using wire – and that was close enough to be a proof of concept. I had something and the idea was good enough to pursue.

Get your own pair via his ebay store.

More Lying and Tying 2009

You guessed it.... A Blue Winged Olive

...and a Giant Golden Stone

If anyone knows who among the seventy or so tiers attending created these unique flies, please leave a comment.