July means the Colorado Rodmakers Reunion near Glenwood Springs, and on the way out I had a chance to fish a couple days with friends on the Yampa, near Steamboat Springs.  Seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the new Perfectionist, which I am going to swap with a couple other rod-makers.

  Under Stagecoach reservoir, the Yampa is a smallish tailwater, packed with large-ish rainbows sporting bright red stripes you could see 4 feet down, in the pools.  The place gets pounded, particularly in that period where the weather is nice enough for fishermen to want to be out and about, but the run-off is still heavy enough to render freestone fishing dangerous or impossible.  That was the case while we were there, and the fish, for the most part, were picky, jumpy, or both.  It takes a while to get dialed in to that kind of conditions but by the second day, things were starting to make a little more sense.  Try lots of small flies, and cast over the same water multiple times.  Somewhere in that routine, you might hit on the right combo, and then big fish were around.

The second day, things aligned, and for a couple hours, my PMD dries worked wonders.

The Perfectionist was, well, perfect:  cast fast and tight into little whirlpools for that 3-second drift, or excute these big under-powered roll casts that would cross 2 current seams and drop 10 feet of line and leader straight down in a puddle, leaving time for the the fly to drift down that far bubble line.  What a pleasure!  I decided then I'd have to make a twin to this rod - that way David will have his pick, and I'll get to keep the other.  I've said before how I think one of the great advantages of bamboo is the feel that it transmits to your hand, and it's tendency to protect tippets, while you are playing a fish. and I think the Perfectionist has that in spades.

If you look to the quiet spot in the water to the left of me, you can see this fish, not yet ready to give up.

The Colorado Rodmakers Reunion itself was good as usual, punctuated this year with the appearance of a handful of rare original Dickerson rods, which we had the opportunity to measure and record.  More of that later.

Lee