The "Fleaflicker"

Own a piece of rod building history.
 This rod was built using a unique graphite blank that was produced for only a short period of time in the 1890's. Thw blank was designed by Dale Clemens, owner of Clemens Custom Tackle and noted author of several classic rod building books.
 The "Fleaflicker" was part of Clemens "Apogee" series of blanks that were built using both hollow graphite(butt section) and solid graphite(tip section). The tip section has a very small diameter, but it is very flexible and durable because it is solid graphite.
 This six-foot blank was originally designed for an ultralight spinning rod, but it works equally well as a 4 or 5 weight fly rod. Perfect for streams with tight cover.
 See the attached excerpt from Dale Clemens' book, Advanced Custom Rod Building, whiich describes the blank in his own words.
 Enjoy.
Dave Fowler
  Excerpt from "Advanced Custom Rod Building"(pp. 13-14)
 "Apogee graphite blanks
" Quite honestly, I debated whether I should even mention Apogee blanks because they are propriety to my supply business and were designed by myself and my manager, Dick French, with the assistance of a number of RodCrafter friends. It's hard enough wearing two hats. Apogee is our trademark for an extremely innovative concept in blanks, and I didn't want to be accused of blowing my own horn to sell my own products. However, the blanks are totally unique and have been accepted especially weel by custom rod builder. RodCrafter friends who knew I was working on the revision of this book felt it would bean important error of omission if I did not discuss these blanks. So- here it goes.
 We started with the design concept a number of years ago in anattempt to make a true ultralight graphite blank. This was to be a blank that honestly could cast a 1/32-ounce lure. The problem was you could only make the walls so thin, then they would collapse in use. We came up with the idea of using the same amount of graphite in the tip section, or even a bit less, but making it solid instead of hollow.
 The tips were made of a solid cylinder of graphite, which was then ground to form various tapers. The diameter of these rod sections were exceptionally small, only about 3/64ths at the tip. The thin profile could slice through the air with much less resistance than bigger-diameter hollow blanks. This reduced the loss of energy put into the blank by the caster. It also meant that a very light weight could load these delicate tips. They were delicate in the sense that they would cast 1/32ounce, but more rugged that regular hollow tips because they were solid. There were no walls to collapse or crush.
 The initial ultralight spinning blanks were called "Fleaflickers" and were offered in two models: five-foot and six-foot lenghts. Using two-pound test lline, Dick and I cast 1/32ounce an average of 45 feet. What suprised at first was that when we put a lure weight of 1/8ounce on the rod it did not overoad it. We had fifty blanks made up and offered them to attendees at the National RodCrafter Seminar who were interested in helping us test them, and the following year we listed them in our catalog...."

Reel Seat

Grip

"Fleaficker" By Dave Fowler

Stop in the shop and give it a cast.

Thanks to Dave Fowler for the info on the "Fleaflicker". He has a very limited quantity of these blanks left but is willing to make a few for anybody interested in buying one. Swing by the shop and give it a test cast!

Tying Nights.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been coming out for tying nights at the shop. We've had some great turn outs so far. The laughs and BS are constant plus some great food to munch on. Hope to keep seeing everyone and hopefully we get some new guys showing up also.

Hard at work?

Still at it.

Great scud pattern by Bret Schultz

Sparkle Dun by Tom Mulford

More sparkle duns

Midge Pattern

Still tying

Killing Time!

Step 1: Set up the tying area with proper materials, tool, and hydration!

Step 2: Acquire dubbing!

Step 3: Inspect said dubbing.

Step 4: Tying flies.

Step 5: Admire your work!

I was recently just sitting around tying some flies when I noticed all the dog hair around my kitchen floor. I decided to give Emma a good brushing and then I tied some flies with her hair. I made these flies to be like John Bethke's pink squirrel although I have no name for them I think they turned out pretty cool and can't wait to give them a try!

Musky Fever!

Since I haven't posted anything here in a few days, I thought it might be time to give a update and show off some pictures of recent fish.
 The WI trout season has been closed for some time now but that doesn't mean everyone should just stop fishing. We have salmon/steelhead runs in the Lake Michigan tribs., Iowa trout season is open year round, and a few of the warmwater fisheries are giving up some great fish right now.
 I have done some great trips to Iowa already and plenty of great fish to the the net. Late season floats down the WI River have been hit or miss, low water on the tribs. has the runs kinda screwy right now, and the most consistent fishing as of late has been Musky fishing. I have been out 4 times in the past two weeks and the results have been GREAT!
 We have boated 4 Musky the two biggest over 40". We have had two dare I say Giant follows and we have hooked up but lost three other magnificent fish. The weather has been all over the map from cold drizzly days to nice warm calm sunny days and the fish are still cooperative. If you ever thought about giving thhis type of fishing a try now is the time.

 Nice but beat up Musky! Scary to think something bigger than this fish was chomping at it.

Close up of why you don't lip Musky.

Matt's first Musky ever and it's on a fly rod! 41" 14lb

I love the color of these fish.

Safe release to get bigger!

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Muskie!!

We decided it was time to head over to Lake Wingra for some Muskie fishing. With the nearly perfect conditions when we arrived my thoughts turned to Monday when we got spanked by the fishies. To steal a saying from a fellow angler we had a "expression of interest" within the first hour, plenty more casting followed when Todd spotted some activity on the surface and Kurt began casting 3 casts later we had what we were looking for. When we finally got it to the net it pulled the Boga Grip to 15lbs and we estimated 40"-42" fish. To say the least Kurt was pretty happy! We missed one more nice nice fish and then we decided we should get some work done.

Beautiful day minus fish.

Myself, Todd, and Gary headed out on the WI river for what we thought we be a great day of smallie fishing. Weather and flows were all in our favor. The river in the morning looked like glass with dead calm conditions and some fish breaking the surface. But as luck or no luck would have it we had a nice full day of casting practice!! We did manage a couple of fish though.

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 Myself and Todd would like to thank Gary for all his work so far on our website.

Iowa Guiding

I was over in Northeast Iowa this past friday and saturday for some fun fishing and a guide trip. The fishing was very good. Friday was a little chilly but that didn't stop the fish from eating. Nymphing in the morning and in the afternoon some fish on dries.

Brown fell for the Pink Squirrel.

Best brown of the day on friday.

Will and a nice brown

close up

Will and his first of many rainbows saturday

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Pete and his first dry fly bow of the day

close up

 Saturday was guiding and I could only hope the fishing would remain good. I got my anwser on one of the guys first cast. Pulled a nice brown in. That set the tone for the rest of the day. In the afternoon we encountered a olive hatch and had surface feeding fish in every run.