Record of Atlantic Salmon Taken by Ron Scott (1980 - 1996)

Salmon Killed in ME (all around 10 lbs):

#1. Meathunters around 1980 from canoe w/Dad on 2/0 Cossaboom

#2. Rockpile on #4 Salmon Caddis w/ Bob Scott (Original Rockpile Caddis) (1984)

#3. Michias #6 Muddler on the way up to Pason's (mid-1980s)

#4. Narrows on wet from canoe landed 1/10 mile downriver (mid-80s)

#5. Sears at Bar on Big Bomber after many rises (Early 80s)

#6. Sears at Bar... (Mid-80s)

#7. Sears across from rock on Big Red & White Bomber dragged down and across (Early 80s)

#8. Corner above Charlies Rips in Fall w/Steve Bates (Mid to late 80s)

#9. Grilse in a flood at Narrows on wet (Early 80s)

#8 salmon + 1 grilse = 9 salmon killed in Maine

New Brunswick:

#10. Camp pool (1st fish from this pool). (1990) took all the backing on a small Flueger on 8'x8

#12. Blackrappids on "Leo Trip" (1987)

#13. Corp water on Renues, Shady Lady (1991)

#14. Mel's Corner, lower pool near little rock (1990)

#14 & 15. 2 at Fiddlehead (1992)

#16 & 17. 2 on dry flies in Camp Pool (1993)

#18 & 19. 2 at Simons in Fall one right after the other (1993)

#20. 1 other at Simons in Fall (1993)

#21 - #16. (1992) 6 on 6'-3"x5 at Camp (1992)

#22 & 23. Salmon that I hooked and let someone else land

#24. 16 lber at Camp Pool Orvis graphite (1991)

#25. 15 lbs for Leon in Fall (1992) Lost a 12-15 lber at Simons (Long-range release)

1993 July SAAMCO Trip:

#26. Spent most of the time guiding but got 1 grilse at the Pine Tree Pool on the Renuse - BBBH #6 Hitched

August 1993 N.W. Miramichi:

#27 through 37.

To include 4 large Salmon hooked, two landed and two lost. One memorable Salmon was at Sam's. Carl Andersen showed me how to fish the pool before lunch. After we had eaten under a screened-in tent, I went out to try the pool. Starting from the top with a wet, I rose a fish on my second cast. Trying more casts in the same location (with just my leader out) I could not get the fish to come again. Switching to a better position up on the side of a big rock I chose a big bomber. After two or three casts, the big guy came, engulfed the fly, and the fight was on. Two leaps and two nice runs later, I worked him in against a lot of pressure and as Byron approached with the net, I decided it would be better to break the beautiful beast off and did so by holding the leader while he shook his mighty head. This, of course, happened while Phoebe Weeks, Carl Andersen, Byron (our guide to be at Adams), and Don (our guide from Dam) watched from the screened-in picnic table.

1994 Summer Dungarvon:

#38. Upper Underwood Brook on the way downriver by canoe with Mike Lee See photos. #8 Green Machine.

#39. At Upper Soldiers Pool, let Mike Lee land it. #6 Shady Lady.

#40. Lower Soldiers killed and tagged while Mike and Leonard were at the upper pool. #6 Green Machine.

#50. Upper Soldiers on #6 Butterfly, let Bill Brouwer land - he forgot to bring tags so I used 1 of mine 1994 N.W. Trip: 51 - 67 (see also 2NOR94.SS). I landed 15 fish and had another 6 on, only one was landed. Life total 67 - YTD total 19.

Fall trip Dungarvon 1994:

#68 - #73 -- 3 grilse and 2 salmon (14-16 lbs and 6-7 lbs) Taking small wets and nymphs, 1 on a hitched #8 BBH at Lower Sq Island. Two on & one landed in the camp pool (none taken there last year, this being only one this year) Life total 73 -- YTD 24

1995:

Skunked it's now September 25, 1995. The only trip to the Dungarvon this year was during the week of the Forth of July. Dad and I went up early in the week then Bill Brower and Leon came up followed the next day by Pat O. and his two boys. The only fish caught were brook trout. Dad and I did a lot of exploring. The North Branch of Renous at the Buggy Pool and we found a grilse in a small stream while trout fishing. The rivers closed because of low warm water and have not reopened to date.

1996:

First trip 3rd week in July Leon M., Mike Lee, CES & RCS: Bertha flood brought fishing to a halt after 1 day -- Only fish caught was by Mike in Camp Pool while I was in town getting my license.

Second Trip 2nd week of August Family Trip:

Dad dropped me off at Sq. Is. Pool while he went to Underwood. There were many fish at Sq. Is. and I had a lot of takes on both wets and drys. Lost 2 then finally landed one at the tail of the upper pool. We went back in the next day and both took a grilse out. The third and final fish of the trip was also on a dry at High Bank with Paul Marderosian. We ate two and smoked two.

#74 - #74 I took 3 -- Dad 1

Fall 1996 Trip -- Lee, Bates, Eklund, Orrell, RCS & CES

#75 -- I landed one grilse at middle Sq. Is. on #6 Shady Lady (took home smoked) Bill E. Landed 2 salmon Life 75 YTD 4

Paul Kukonen and his secret fly

 When I was a kid Paul Kukonen had a fly shop on Green Street in Worcester. It was not like the fly shops you see today. His was a mess. There was stuff everywhere -- no fancy displays -- just shelves with plain brown cardboard boxes and coat stands with waders and rain coats randomly hanging from them. The front counter had a glass top and there were some fly reels and fly boxes inside. An old cash register sat on top at the end nearest the front wall. Despite the mess he could always be depended on to find whatever you happen to be looking for. I bought a saddle hackle once -- he poked a box down from the top shelf with a broom handle and caught it in his arms. There, inside was the saddle hackle I was looking for. I still have it. I think I was planning on tying a lot of dry flies. Now I have no interest in tying tiny dry flies but you never know, maybe I'll use those feathers someday. I don't know how old I was, I was probably in high school, but he seemed like an old man. And the other customers that hung out in his store were old looking too. I was told that Paul slept in the back room with his english setter. I wouldn't doubt it. He was one small step away from being homeless. 

Even though Paul was not well off financially he was kind of famous. Curt Gouty and Lee Wulff even  mention him in the film they made about fishing Minipi trout.  Paul also made movies and showed them around Worcester, Springfield, and Boston. My father who also made and showed movies back then told me that Paul used his original footage rather than spending the money to have a print made. He spent all his money, all his life on fishing. He was the archetypal trout bum.

Here is a good article about Paul that was published in the Worcester T&G, Feb 9, 2015:

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/east-valley/2015/02/10/outdoors-paul-kukonen-was-pioneer/35243156007/

Now that you have a mental picture of Paul and his store, I'll tell you about the secret fly. I remember the day that he explained it to me. A friend of mine, Steve and I stopped into Paul's store for something -- I don't remember what but I remember that there were no other customers in the store (which was rare). I took the opportunity to explain to him who I was. He had know idea who I was so I explained that my father was Carl Scott and our neighbor and good friend was Jack Swedberg. My father and Jack knew Paul very well from the movie making and showing circuit. There were times when they would all be at some sportsmen's club or church showing their movies together. Paul made fishing movies, Carl and Jack made wildlife movies. 

So now Paul knew who I was -- and knew that I was not just some random customer. We got talking about salmon fishing on the Dennys. He knew about it and had tried it but there wasn't enough action for him. He wanted to catch and eat trout. In all honesty he probably couldn't afford to spend a week staying in a cabin or hotel room hoping that he might catch one fish if he were lucky. He asked me if I had ever tried a particular fly that he had invented and that seemed to work on all kinds of trout and salmon. It called for a dubbed body of muskrat fur, a wood duck feather wound backwards and an another darker brown hackle wound the normal way over it. Barbules of that same dark brown hackle were also used as a tail. It was a very drab looking wet fly -- drab and very buggy looking wet fly. I did end up catching a few Atlantic salmon on it as well as landlocks and trout. I've never seen a picture of it or a description of it anywhere. My name for it is the PK Special. I am planning on making a video and posting it on my YouTube channel -- hopefully I'll get to it this week.

Packing for Belize Fly Fishing

 March 3, 2023 -- First full day back from Belize. Haven't even unpacked yet! Wanted to jot some things down regarding what I took on the trip, what I should have taken on the trip, and what I shouldn't have taken on the trip. Before I get into the details, let me give you some background:

First let me explain that the trip was not for the exclusive purpose of fishing. It was a family fun vacation with some great fishing opportunities thrown in. Secondly I am not a big saltwater fly fishing guy. I've fished for stripers and blues around Cape Cod and the Islands and I did one DIY bonefishing trip in the Bahamas about 10 years ago. Other than that I have very little saltwater fly fishing experience under my belt. My fishing partner on this trip, on the other hand, is really big into fly fishing for saltwater species. He talks about saltwater species that I've never even heard of. That being the case, and the fact that this was "his trip," ... his 40th birthday present from his wife (my daughter), I pretty much let him do all of the planning. He picked the place, decided what we would fish for and booked the guide.

Because this was a combination family trip and fishing trip, we decided on 2 days of guided fishing and the remainder would be DIY fishing around other family activities. We booked a 5 bedroom house on Ambergris Caye for a week. It was my daughter Jess, her husband Matt, their 3 year old daughter Carly, Matt's parents, me, and Jess's friend Trisha (who would help with Carly and give Jess some time to fish or participate in other adult activities aka bar hopping. The group dynamics worked well. Matt's parents, being a little older wanted to relax around the house and kept it clean and tidy, while the younger contingency went off exploring and generally making a mess of the house. I consider myself part of the younger contingency because I enjoy being on the go and really get bored just hanging around. 

Matt and I discussed the trip quite a bit during the year leading up to it. I had to try to tone down my expectations because he was talking about us each getting a grand slam -- meaning catching a bonefish, a permit, and a tarpon. He was imagining us catching all kinds of fish and I was rebutting with comments like, "it will probably suck -- we probably won't even catch a fish." My reasoning was that I would rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed... and I explained that to him. He insisted on being very optimistic and I think was ultimately disappointed. The fishing was good, but not great. Because the wind blew hard (20-30mph) every day and had been blowing like that for 2 weeks the guides couldn't take us to the flats they normally fish -- the good flats. The only flats that would have given us a shot at tarpon. We were restricted to fishing in the lagoon behind Ambergris and there only on the lee shore.

With tarpon off the list we had no use for the 12 weight rods we brought. I had two with -- a Loomis graphite and one of my hand made bamboo rods. I can't call that a mistake because we had no way to know that tarpon fishing was not going to be part of the game. But I still brought way too much fishing gear. I envisioned that I would get a chance to test a lot of fly lines, so I brought 2 reels with different lines for each of the three rod weights I had with. Winter in New England isn't an ideal place to test fly rods and fly lines and I had a lot of testing I wanted to do. But because of the strong winds and the incestant inflowing mounds of sargassum there was no good place to fly cast near the house. That fact I probably could have discovered prior to heading down there but it wasn't something that I expected so I bought 5 fly rods, 6 reels with lines on them, and 3 additional lines. I ended up using 2 fly rods and two reels. That's a lot of extra gear to lug around, especially considering that I carrying all my rods and reels in one carry on case.

I purchased a Simms travel case for the rods and reels. It is designed to fit in the overhead compartment of an airliner, which it did and it worked great! But I think if I were to do it again, I'd take it but I'd check it. And I'd split my rods and reels up so if one of my cases got lost I'd still have another to fish with. The suitcase I used is designed to hold rods in the lower compartment and that worked great too. The only thing I did wrong was take too many rods, reels, and lines. Next time I might take 3 max but I would consider just taking 2 -- a 9/10 weight and a 5/6 weight. Only if I knew for sure that I would be fishing for tarpon would I take the 12 weight.

I also bought a Simms waterproof sling pack which I used for my "personal item" allowed to be carry on the plane. It worked great as a carry on pack and as a fishing pack. I'll do a full review Youtube of both Simms products in the near future. I'll also provide a complete packing list with details about every item along with the pros and cons of each item. 

Stay tuned ...

Fishing for Atlantic Salmon and Brook Trout in New Brunswick

 In 1985 ... June, the Dennys River was low and there were no fish to be found. We had fished all of the regular places, even the Downtown stretch. No one was fishing. It was if the river was dead.

Over evening cocktails we talked. What should we do? We could go bass fishing ... sightseeing? Ray Robinson had mentioned that Bartlet, Donald, and Lippy were fishing the Renous River in New Brunswick. We knew nothing about the Renous. My father had fished the main Southwest Miramichi years ago at Wilson's Camps; Jack Swedberg, my Aunt and my Uncle fished with Vince Swayze on the MIramichi pretty much every year back then, but we pretty much were clueless about the actual fishing. It was decided then and there, that warm June day, on the porch of Sear's Camp, with a gin buck in hand that we were going to drive up to the Renous and find Bartlet and the boys. We would hopefully catch them red handed in the act of fishing their secret pool on the Renous. Yeah right -- watch were the chances?

My father and I headed out the next morning. We figured we drive up, check out the area, and drive back the same day. It was 3 1/2 hours up and 3 1/2 hours back, that 7 hours of driving, leaving us a few hours to explore the area and learn something. And worse case, say we found that the fishing was awesome, we could always stay a night or two. My mother decided she would rather stay back in Dennysville. She had no desire to sit in the car all day. That's fine -- let's got!

I remember my father driving and that new Jeep Cherokee he had. We would have turned left out of Robinson's then left on route 1 and left again on 214. From there we passed the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge on the bumpy narrow road that wound its way through the thick conifer forest that covers the entire region. Crossing the border was easy back then. No passport needed, just answer a couple of questions and welcome to Canada. The roads are smoother, nicer in Canada. We drove through Fredericton, crossed the mighty St John, and continued up Route 148 on the west side of the Nashwaak River. When we came the bridge in Taymouth we stopped to look at the river and took note of the water lever and flow. It looked good! We were in salmon country -- our expectations were running as high as the water. 

We caught our first glimpse of the broad southwest in Boiestown and caught glimpses of it off to our our left as we followed it downstream to Doaktown. I don't remember stopping at Doak's Fly Shop but I'm sure my father pointed out the little white building that used to be Doak's back when he had been up here fishing. After crossing the Miramichi we continued on to Blackville and then Renous where we turned left on the Plaster Rock Highway which is not a highway--just a paved two lane road through the woods that goes directly to Plaster Rock from Renous.  On the map it's route 108. A couple miles up 108 we turned left and crossed the Renous, but before we crossed we pulled over and got out to look down into the water from the metal Bailey bridge.

When you look upstream you see a fairly wide river spotted with boulders that stick out of the flat flowing surface of the water like polka dots. It doesn't look like much -- no distinct pools, just a constant steady flow of water and those polka dot boulders. Looking downstream is totally different. The water drops quickly and swings around the corner through distinct pools. Standing on the bridge and looking down provides a crystal clear view through the water right to the gavel bottom. If there are fish to be seen you can easily pick them out. We both had on our polaroids and we must have looked like salmon fishermen, not only by our attire buy be they way we shaded our glasses to peer into the water. A car came by and stopped, rolled down the window and the driver asked: "Do ya see any fish?" "No, nothin." Was our reply.

We ended up chatting with the nice man for several minutes. He learned that we were interested in fishing and needed a guide. He said, "follow me. I'll take you to a guide that lives just down the road." Great. We got back into the Jeep, he turned around and off we went. At the end of the road he turned right, we followed. I remember the dust so the road was probably gravel back then. Now it's paved up to Pineville. We didn't go far before we saw an old Chevy coming the other way. We stopped. The guy in front of us was talking to the guy in the Chevy. Pretty soon the Chevy pulled up to us and the guy said something. We couldn't understand him but somehow figured out that he was going to be our guide. We followed him back to his house and got out to meet him. He was short and big ... wide with a big round gut. His faded blue work shirt was tucked in making his gut even more pronounced. His belt seemed to squeeze him into a smaller man below the waist. The end of his leather belt hung down about 6 inches and down past his crotch. He was a strange sight -- his big round head and a cap too small to fit it. But as strange as he looked he talked in some weird foreign language; a variation of english that sounded like a scottish brogue. He would talk, we would listen. Then we would try to figure out what he had said. We would repeat what we thought he said back to him and he would let us know if we were close. 

Somehow we had all decided to go fishing and that he would be our guide. There we stood, three guys, two cars, and a little house in the middle of nowhere with one common purpose -- to fish. To Leonard Munn fishing was his life. Sometimes "fishing" meant stringing a gill net across the river at night and at other times it meant sleeping in his Chevy while is paying "sports" fished. Leonard was overnight, out of shape and he had no toes on the foot that he had left hanging out of his car while sleeping one cold night. The toes froze and had to be amputated. He also had a heart condition which caused him to, in his words, "fill up with water." But despite these several physical handicaps he could out walk most people. We found that out on that same day when he took us into a pool somewhere on the Renous where we had to walk in the river upstream for about a half mile. I was 27 years old and in shape and had trouble keeping up with him. The only reason I could was because he had to stop once in a while due to chest pains.

More latter ...

Quarryville, Southwest Miramichi and Renous River

The Greenbrier Fly Rod

 

RScott Bamboo Fly Rods and The Big Bamboo Compay

This blog post is about my fly rod company, RScott Bamboo Fly Rods: https://rscottbambooflyrods.com/ and why I started it. 

I am one of those people who has too many hobbies, too many interests, too spread out, unfocused and when I do get interested in something I do a deep dive into it. I read everything there is to read about it. I watch ever video made on the subject, I attend shows, take classes, and totally immerse myself in it. I enjoy the learning process and I love the challenge of mastering new skills. It's kind of an exploration of the world, of reality, of what life is all about. 

Even as a kid I was always curious about things. I remember getting in trouble because I took apart my fathers pocket watch and couldn't get it back together again. I was constantly tinkering with things and I remember watching birds and being fascinated by flight. I built model airplanes from balsa wood and silk when I was 12. Then I learned how to fly them -- both control line and RC. Later I got my pilots license. I loved woodworking and making all kinds of things. I took up blacksmithing, built a forge, and made knives. Then I bought a lathe and taught myself how to machine parts. I learned how to solder, braze and weld metal. But all of these things were always hobbies, things I did when I was not working for a living. 

After a 40 year long career in finance and investing I had built a business that didn't need my full time attention and I knew at some point I would retire from it completely. In preparation for that day I made a New Year's resolution to "find my passion." I wanted to discover one thing that I really loved to do and to focus on that one thing. I gave myself one month to find it. I made a list of all the things I enjoyed doing and pondered each one of them to see if I would enjoy focusing on just one. 

I ending up choosing fishing because it checked off a lot of boxes. It involves being outdoors, it involves writing and photography, it involves travel and exploration, and it involves (or could involve) making fly rods. And making fly rods, especially making bamboo fly rods involves thinking. Unlike making fiberglass or graphite fly rods, making bamboo fly rods require an understanding of tapers and how they affect the action of the fly rod. Every rod I make starts with the design phase -- how long, what weight line, how many sections, what action ... etc. It can easily take a full 8 hour day to complete the design phase and it involves a lot of thinking, which I also enjoy. There is actually a philosophy component to rod design. 

The reason that I took up designing and building bamboo fly rods is that it gives me a chance to make something with my hands that I can see and feel. That's something I never had in my career. Finance is almost entirely a mental exercise and there is nothing to see except numbers on a page. I wanted to create physical objects and then use them in the outdoors and in far away places. Bamboo fly rod making is the perfect avocation for me! I wanted to make a business out of a hobby and a hobby out of starting and running a business. I've been self employed my entire life, so running a business is second nature to me but I've never run a manufacturing business. Making bamboo fly rods one at a time is not a complicated nor a big manufacturing enterprise but it is nonetheless manufacturing.

And the best part is that I don't need to make money at this enterprise. Part of the challenge is to sell a few rods, maybe a more than a few, but if I don't I can still afford to do everything I want to in life.

--RScott

Midges, Bantys, and Bamboo

 For those who may not have read my prior blog posts on how I came to prefering very light short bamboo fly rods to all others I will briefly recap now by taking you through the steps:

1) Learn how to fly cast and fish with an 8 or 9 foot graphite or fiberglass fly rod. I my case it was an 8 foot for 8 weight Fenwick.

2) After a few years of fishing for Atlantic salmon and reading about Lee Wulff's exploits I began to reduce the weight of my fly rods. My favorite for many years was a 9' 6 weight Sage. There is something almost magical about casting a light weight fly rod. It takes so little effort to throw a long straight line. And I discovered that I could play big strong fish on this rod simply by getting the butt of the rod into the action once the fish began to tire. 

3) More years passed and many more fish were brought to hand. It was getting to the point that it was almost too easy -- I needed a challenge. So I started using my 7 1/5 foot 5 weight Orvis trout rod for Atlantics. Now I had found a rod size that was testing my fishing skill but it was by no means even close to the lightweight bamboo rods that Lee was using. I wanted to duplicate his achievements.

4) I think it was shortly after we bought the Dungarvon salmon camp -- so late 80's early 90's that I picked up a little 6 foot bamboo blank from Jim Bender at The Lower Forty fly shop. I wrapped guides on it, mounted the reel seat and grip and started fishing for salmon in front of our camp. Back then we had good runs of grilse in July and caught fish pretty much every day. It didn't take long. I knew every lie in the pool. The fish took a hitched black bear hair and screamed down stream jumping as he went. I played him and landed him and I released him. In those days we killed a fish or two to eat but I wanted that first fish on that little bamboo fly rod to go free. I never landed a big salmon on that little rod but I had a lot fun landing grilse on it until one day I put a little too much bend in it and it snapped. 

5) When I started making my own split cane rods, I immediately gravitated towards the small and light variety. The biggest rod I made in those first few years was an 8 foot 8 weight. Most were 7 or 7 1/2 feet for 4 and 5 weight lines. Then I decided to try to catch a big salmon on a 6 footer. I called the rod that I made, the "L.W. Salmon." It was a 6' 3" 8 weight. That fall we went up and didn't fish much. No one was fishing Quarryville because there weren't many fish around. One day, just for the fun of being in the woods I took my old CJ5 up to Soldier's Pool, walked in through the wood and across a beaver dam to the river at the upper pool. As I walked out to the river I spooked a moose. Raven chased it and it stumbled up the river bank and out of sight. We crossed there, walked down stream, crossed back, walked past the middle pool, crossed again and started fishing the lower pool. About half way down I hooked a fish and knew it was a large salmon. I started my cell phone video and put it in my shirt pocket. I got one good jump on video then the phone fell and that was that. It was a great fish, a great fight, and I will never forget it. I edited a short video and posted it on YouTube:

Lee Wulff Tribute

6) I was never a big bamboo guy, but once I started making them I also began reading about them and became fascinated with Midges and Banties as made by the famous rod makers -- Orvis, Hardy, Leonard, Payne, and Young. Some people think that a Banty is just the mid and tip section of a 9' salmon rod. with a grip and reel seat glued onto the mid section but I've tried that years ago and it doesn't make for a very good fly rod. The little 4' 4" Banty was a specialty rod.This description is from the Classic Fly Rod Forum (sorry I don’t know who wrote this history):

" …(early 60's) Arnold Gingrich and cohorts promoted a small, 4'4" rod NAMED the "BANTY". Hardy built them (4'4") called the Phantom Hallokona and made some of the same exclusively for A&F labelled "Banty". Orvis joined in the game with their 4'4" rod named the "Banty" and sold it exclusively through agreement with A&F. Jim Payne made a 4'4" model named "Banty", also sold through A&F. AJ Thramer has tweaked the Payne Banty and developed his own 4'4" Banty for a#4 line, now sometimes called the "Thramer 444" as opposed to "Banty" but it's lineage is clear. And so, the time was when a gentleman fished a "Banty" fly rod, he was fishing a specific model that was 4'4" long and cast a # 4 or #5 line. As such these were serious, though specialized rods and came into their own on small, brush-choked streams. Pinpoint accuracy was one of their noted benefits but the short rod made the fish close to the angler's hand throughout the take, fighting and landing and made for an intense, extremely interactive experience with the fish. I am afraid an entire generation of fly fishers has grown up now unaware of these wonderful little "niche" rods and just how capable and fun they are to fish. Today, the term "banty" has become generic for those rods somewhat shorter than "midge" rods. But it's kind of fun knowing the originals were specific 4'4" rods for some pretty specific reasons and developed a serious, if small following. …..Why 4'4"? There's a whole story in itself surrounding that. Pick up some of Arnold Gingrich's books, most particularly the, "TOYS of a Lifetime" title and enjoy reading about the history of these diminutive little rods. …. They're coveted by their owners and seldom come to the secondary market."