Bamboo in the rain.

[Dave Westburg]

Mike Monsos and I hiked through the rain to Armstrong's Pond this morning, so named for the fun trips I've taken there with @Greg Armstrong . I fished a Granger 8040 Victory 5 weight and Mike fished an 8'4" Monsos 5 weight. Mike's hat is a classic.



The wild cutts were as active as ever. I found fish on an intermediate line, a size 12 Royal Coachman and a size 12 Leadwing coachman. Two-thirds of the fish wanted the Royal Coachman on the dropper. Mike did well with a soft hackle and some other flies.




Most of the fish were 8-11 inches (see below) but late in the day I broke off a nice one.



I almost didn't make it on the water when the aging bladder valve on my wilderness lite jammed open. The best solution would have been to pull out the old valve with a forceps and install a new valve but I'd foolishly forgotten my replacement valves at home. "Whittle a stick to plug the valve" said Mike which gave me the idea to use a rock to bash the valve closed, inflate the tube without the valve and then stick the broken valve back into the tube as a plug...



Note to self: Carry a spare Wilderness lite inflation valve in case this happens in the future...

 

[speyflyfisher]

Glad you guys made it out on this rainy friday. It looks like Mike has the earlier model wilderness lite which is what I have.
I assume you have the inflated seat on yours. Do you think you site up that much higher? I really don't like the valves on these.
Maybe splice one of these into the inflation tube?

 

[Dave Westburg]

@speyflyfisher , we were using a new and an old wilderness lite. The newer wilderness lites have velco which secures the seat...



My wife sewed some straps to the older wilderness light to keep its inflatable seat from sliding up.



If you aren't happy with the inflation value you can pull the old valve out with a forceps or pliers...




This is what the end tube looks like. You can inflate the tube by sticking the pump directly into the tube but you need to have a way of plugging it when the tube is full. I suppose you could also try gluing something on the end.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Well done guys.
That's a fun little pond with those beautiful, colorful, native coastal Cutthroat trout!

And goes to show that bamboo doesn't care if the sun's shining or if it's a downpour. But I'd bet the fishing benefited from today's rain.

 

[Mike Monsos]

What a fun way to spend a Friday with a good friend, on a secret pond and some very aggressive cutties after a short hike with a loaned Wilderness Lite float tube from Dave! I landed a dandy on a damsel nymph right off the start, about 13" plus, beautiful fish and very frisky and healthy. I landed many smaller cutties after that and all those were fun fish. If Dave ever askes you if you would like to join him on a little hike to a secret lake, you better take him up on it, just say'n.

Thaks Dave!

Mike

 

[Mike Monsos]

I forgot to mention that Dave had the Wilderness Lite tube inflated for me and insisted that I get on the water and do some fishing while he tried to come up with a solution to the valve in the other Wilderness. I was going to come back if Dave could not fix the valve. But luckily Dave was on the pond not long after I was.

Mike