What Do You Enjoy More? Building or Fishing?

[Aristotle]

Hello fellow builders.

Out of curiosity, what do you enjoy more, building or fishing? What is more rewarding, brings you more satisfaction?

Like many, I’m sure, I started fly fishing, then fly tying and then bamboo rod building. From the outset, I decided that I would build each and every part of the rod from raw stock - culms split and all NS machined. I’m not sure why I took on this challenge. Through many trials and tribulations, false starts, and anguish, bamboo rod building has emerged as one of the greatest and most rewarding activities. Unexpectedly, bamboo rod building has become even more rewarding to me than fly fishing. The finished product, while important, is not my primary goal. Rather, the path has become the destination.

I absolutely love fly fishing. And it’s even better with a rod you built and a fly you tied. But fishing, itself, lacks some of the important aspects unique to rod building.

Just some thoughts.

[Canewrap]

I would agree with you, but I think that fishing a rod with a taper that you designed specifically for the fishing you are doing is the icing on the cake. And, fishing a small warmwater stream and catching so many fish that you lose count is right up there with that moment you test cast a rod and it feels exactly like you imagined it would.

[3creeks]

I build way more than I fish because I don't live close to good trout water. I think I'd like fishing better but building has been a really nice hobby for me that somewhat satisfies my fly fishing urge. You can only lawn cast so much before you yearn to be on the water and I've got 5 rods completed that have yet to be fished.

[holla999]

both the same, in summer fishing, in winter building. it is a very fine hobby all year round!
gr. Peter

[chsparkman]

I love fishing, but rod making occupies much more of my time and my mind. I love the challenges that making presents. Each finished rod, rod case or net is a source of pride.

[Canewrap]

I build way more than I fish because I don't live close to good trout water. I think I'd like fishing better but building has been a really nice hobby for me that somewhat satisfies my fly fishing urge. You can only lawn cast so much before you yearn to be on the water and I've got 5 rods completed that have yet to be fished.

Yep, have not fished much this year, but I don't live close to any good trout water either (N. Alabama). I love to fish, so I have adapted to where I live. But, I also love my rodmaking, especially since I have been designing my own warmwater specific tapers. So, for me it is very much a mix of love for both. However, if I lived in a big city with no water close, I would completely understand the sentiment.

[3creeks]

Yep, have not fished much this year, but I don't live close to any good trout water either (N. Alabama). I love to fish, so I have adapted to where I live. But, I also love my rodmaking, especially since I have been designing my own warmwater specific tapers. So, for me it is very much a mix of love for both. However, if I lived in a big city with no water close, I would completely understand the sentiment.
[/quote]

There are streams that used to be within an hour of my old house in Venice. The increase in traffic over the last few years has added another 45 minutes to that hour and then I moved 20 miles further south, so now I'm 2 hours at minimum from drought stricken creeks. When I have a day off I usually weigh my desire to fight traffic to catch 10" fish against a day in the shop and the latter wins.

[SpringCreek]

I spend way more time building rods than fishing. I love both and would honestly fish more if I lived closer to trout, salmon or steelhead water myself. There are trout in Missouri, but at least a couple of hours away from where I live, and even then it is a put and take location which I'm not overly fond of. My true passion is steelhead fishing. There was a river in Washington that was great for fishing dry flies every October. With the dismal state of steelhead fishing in the west, I have not bothered traveling there in a few years now. On the other hand, that does give me more time to build. I've got several rods on the bench right now and am looking forward to finishing them up in the next few weeks.

Jim

[Canewrap]

"I've got several rods on the bench right now and am looking forward to finishing them up in the next few weeks."

Yep, I have 5 rod worth split and roughed. I hope to finish the first two in the next couple months and the other 3 by next spring. I still have a day job, so its an hour here and there, but I am looking forward to finishing more blanks this year than last.

P.S. Springcreek, do you have any smallmouth water near you? Not as pretty as trout, but they are my favorite gamefish.

[SpringCreek]

P.S. Springcreek, do you have any smallmouth water near you? Not as pretty as trout, but they are my favorite gamefish.

There are plenty of smallmouth opportunities around me, however, I just can't bring myself to fish for them. Growing up they were considered "scrap fish" in the area of the Northwest that I grew up in. If you caught one you were expected to kill it and throw it on the bank. If they spread to a great extent in the lakes we fished, they would use rotenone to kill everything in a lake to get rid of the bass. In the rivers they couldn't do that and they did take hold in several places primarily where the water was warmer. That did impact the trout fishing which I was never happy about.

I may have to break down and fish for them, but to be honest I don't see that coming anytime soon.

Jim

[Canewrap]

I hear you. Growing up I had the same bias against largemouth bass. If I was fishing a trout stream and caught a largemouth, I was disappointed. Now, I love to fish for largemouth, but the southern largemouth is a very different fish from largemouth I would occasionally catch in Pennsylvania; stronger, sportier and actually prettier. You might want to consider smallmouth. If you ever caught a 4 lb smallie, you would feel differently about them, trust me. And, if there are any bream (sunfish) in those small streams they really are the southern answer to the brookie. When I stopped being hung up on trout fishing, I started to have a lot more fun. A lot of the small streams in N. Alabama are seriously underfished because everybody wants to go fish for big fish or trout, which these streams hold neither and I am thankful for that, since I have spent many an afternoon fishing beautiful surroundings with small water all to myself and no shortage of fish to catch. Each to his own.

[GetnThere]

I enjoy it all. The best part about rod building, renewing more than building, is the drive. It doesn't take long at all to go to the basement. Im NJ and I can get to trout water in about an hour, warmwater fish in 15 minutes. As a kid any fish would do, then just trout then just LM bass then trout and bass, now back to just about any fish will do. BTW that also means I need more rods, lol.

[Don Andersen]

I have generally fished 100>120 days and get excited each time I go. I never get that excited about building.
Not saying I don’t enjoy it and really am pleased with the rod. I’ve used bamboo rods I’ve made for over 40 years. In the past week, the rods landed 25 pike, 3 Rainbows from 3>5 lbs & <> 30 Brookies from 8>18”.
Plus, I really enjoy the excitement & pleasure of those that use my rods. Unlike me, the rods have travelled the world. Part of me went along.

Don

[Livingstone]

Hi all, It's a toss up, however I just returned from Alberta and was fishing Cutthroat with my son. Watching him cast beautifully and land fish with one of my builds was great, that is very satisfying to see but doesn't answer the question!!! Livingstone.

[Aristotle]

These are all wonderful answers. One insight I’ve arrived at hearing others consider this question is that each provides a different form of enjoyment.

Don - excitement fishing; excitement and pleasure when others use your rods around the world

Livingstone - satisfaction when your son beautifully cast and landed a fish with one of your rods

I live minutes from a wonderful tailwater, which provides year round fishing opportunities. There are also many tributaries to this tailwater, which hold abundant numbers of wild native fish and receive little angling pressure. I was out earlier this week for the first time in awhile, and it was exhilarating. Yet, I noticed myself gravitating toward rod building this summer. It is something about the art and craft of building that was capturing me in a different way from fishing. But the ultimate enjoyment is being able to do both.

[Don Andersen]

The best thing about Fly Fishing is the facets.
It could be the equipment that you make, the bugs you find, the techniques mastered, the places visited, new friends discovered. The list is endless.
Each of us cranked up by all or few of the above.
What I do know, the fish teach me each day and I find that delightful after 65 years of casting flies.
The learning never ends.

Don

[3creeks]

I was DEEP into golf for most of my life but fly fishing and all of the various facets (rabbit holes) make it a richer experience for me than golf could have been in three lifetimes.

[munsey w]

I would always rather be fishing than rod making! I make rods because I fish. Most of my rods are oriented to a specific stream I fish so it is critical that I fish so that I can continue to move my designs forward.

[Canewrap]

I'm with you Munsey. I come up with unusual taper designs to match what I am doing. My favorite design is still a 6'8" 6wt that I came up with, but I have a 7ft 7in, WF7 design on the bench that I have high hopes for (derived from a Halstead design), since I will be fishing it out of pontoon boat this spring. I combined a couple of different tapers to come up with a 3pc small stream rod that should work for small streams in N. Alabama, N. Georgia, and the mountains of Tennesse.