Rod making gave me the possibility to meet people from far away countries and after a 6 months of communication during the making process, I finish with a new rod and a new friend. This happened with Mr. Kuan Chee Yung (Arthur) from Singapore. Arthur is a passionated fly fisherman and he love bamboo rods. I made a CFH805*JF 8' #5/6 Hollow Jaguar Flamed Series and now I'm working into a "very special" new rod for him.
Dear Marcelo,
It is my pleasure to write about the Jaguar eventhough as I said earlier, I would have loved to attach some casting sequences, some rare freshwater catches and salt water catches with the story as this rod was designed with these dreams in mind... Anyway, you can call this first Jaguar Story Part 1 as I continue my adventures with this marvelous rod. I hope the story is nottoo long...
Jaguar Story Part 1
Marcelo, you are one of my most inspiring friends among the world's best rodmakers. Canerod flyfishing has been a 5 year journey and it wouldn't have been so enduring and pleasurable if not for your help.
My little tale about learning the art of cane rods started about 5 years ago when I posted a query about hexagraph rods and an admired friend TY (flycaster99) chided me by saying that I should not allow myself to be 'hexed' by ' bewitching mistresses' that are 'plastic' and instead should try out real cane rods. Fast forward a year later and I had become a Clarks forum regular. Another year and I had made friends with a bunch of really interesting, big hearted and funny folks whom I have the honor to call friends... and among the friends was yourself Marcelo and Ron Barch...
During the course of some 7 months I had the pleasure of seeing your experiments with Jaguar flaming and refining your craft as you kept my passion burning Latin Style with update photos and Viola! The prototype Hollowbuilt Jaguar Flame 5wt 8ft finally leapt into Lion City Singapore.
After a few days of lawn casting to learn to 'listen' to the rod, I finally unleash her on the Peacock Bass population one morning and promptly hooked one and lost a few ( which were naturally 'larger'). The rod performed beautifully from distance casting, roll casting, transmitting the throbbing take and finally playing the fish. I'd admit that the poor bass was truly outgunned by the rod but you wouldn't think it by just handling the rod which was both light and delicate. It was just a beautiful experience..... and yes, a few friends with me this morning didn't want to return me the rod after trying it and hooking up some fish as well!
This story doesn't end here as I subsequently owned top end 8ft 5-6wt canerods by great makers like T&T, Bjarne Fries and Wayne Maca and we had a 5-6wt 'shoot out' between bamboo and graphite rods( Winston BIIX, T&T Helix, Sage XP etc)during a Flyfishing Club Singapore gathering and guess what... all these good rods, bamboo & graphite, sent out the entire 100ft flyline for the good casters but all the casters including the 'plastic' boys agreed that the Jaguar is extremely light and is tops in terms of relaxation and 'feel'. Many were simply addicted to the action of the rod.
I have since fished the Jaguar with my canerod buddies many times and most times, I have to pry the rod from my buddies' fingers. Looks like everyone loves to tango with the beauty! The next step will be to hook Giant Trevallys and barramundis on this set-up but meantime, here are some of the available catch pictures... they are not big fishes but the wide grins tell all.
Thank you Marcelo and may our next rod bring bamboo rod design to new heights!
Best regards
Arthur
Thank you Arthur I love that Peacocks on one of my rods.
Arthur
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