Death of the One of a Kind Artifact

I have spent my life up till now earning a modest wage using my hands. I don't care if you make yo-yo's, knives, smoking pipes, illustrations, or furniture. If it comes from your bench, drawing board, or cave and it is handled by your hands from natural materials of earth origin and you transform the raw into something “usable” or “artful” it is one of a kind. This has been a topic of heated discussion since Robert Henri wrote “The Art Spirit”. He took a lot of heat in the 1920's and his students questioned and pondered many of his excerpts.

Wabi-Sabi refers to natures fingerprint on natural earth born materials. The persona of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, genuineness, and the suggestion of natural processes. Craftsman have made peace with their chosen medium's natural state. My motto has always been~“we cannot control Mother Nature but we can complement her best intentions”. That's complement spelled with an “e”. Ultimately it is this “natural state” that brings a certain genuineness and value to the artifact. The craftsman takes a difficult journey with not a lot of pay days or pay raises. This journey does not prove to be glamorous or even profitable much of the time. It is quite simply a path one takes because they feel a primal need... in the words of Robert Henri “the need to do and make”

The general lack of awareness in America that results from too much digital information obliterating our neocortex is killing Japettos Workshop. The tolerance for “natural processes” in America's marketplace or process in general is foundering like a newly constructed ship with no keel sliding out of drydock. The inevitable has already happened before our eyes. Everybody needs to back away from their Amazon accounts and their overnight shipping expectations and see where this is all leading. If you want the loving fingerprint of a craftsperson on your chosen artifact then pour yourself a glass of Scotch, sit down in an uncomfortable chair, pick up a pen with your comatose bluetooth mouse contorted fingers and write a note on real rag linen paper. Go out of your way to scrounge up some stamps you need to actually lick. Fold the note avoiding a paper cut so you do not bleed out and ruin your melamine end table with arterial spray. Drive your ass down to the post office, smile at the postmaster and hand him your letter. You now have become part of the “natural process”

~Clint Bova

Slow Water Caddis Emerger

The Caddis emerger is a very important part of the trouts diet. During this life stage the Caddis is especially vulnerable to the elements and is easy prey thus making it very attractive to these very energy conscious fish. The insect is just about ready to break free of its nymphal shuck and the count down for its launch sequence begins with a few wiggles. I have always been looking for a great surface fly that mimics these little beauties. For a few years now I have gotten a lot of use of this little emerger pattern that tends to out fish most of my other emerger patterns even when there is no discernible hatch. This is a great pattern for super finicky Brown trout. I have fooled many fish with this pattern and with the right combination of materials it is a pattern that stays floating even in fast water for a long time. With the use of TMC's Aero Wing material (extended shuck) the fly is a great floater. The fibers are not only fine but hollow keeping the fly float

CB's Japanese Beetles

above photo: Provided by Debbi T. Walker an Ohio Photographer. Debbi is a talented outdoor photographer who loves to take pictures of insects, animals, and landscapes and often shoots photography around the Mad River and Cedar Bog. In the heat of the summer many fish hunker down during the day and will pass up the occasional Caddis, midge, or ant floating overhead. Often fish conserve energy for a larger more nourishing food item. During the summer months fish want to conserve energy and exert themselves only for the most significant meal. This is called the “Pounds Per Meat Law” again the least amount of energy is expelled for the most nourishment possible. This should be the mid-summer mantra for both fishers and fish! Large ants are another food item that fish will come off of the bottom for during the midday sun and heat. Japanese Beetles are one of those items on the surface menu that will spark a fishes interest when nothing else seems to work. Rise

Spidey Senses~The Irresistible Arachnid

Fishing spider patterns is a favorite activity of mine in the late spring, summer and fall. Many of the spring creeks that I frequent have adjacent fields of corn, soy, feed grass, as well as tall overhead trees and brambles. Spiders are prolific here and as much as I hate them I do love fishing with them. I have tried many patterns over the years most of which were not my own. Most of them were either too clunky, too overdressed, or just downright stupid looking. If I were to cast a wad of sheet foam and rubber bands to a big Brown on most of my usual digs I would be typecasted by most of the coherent fish instantly. After years of hit and miss I settled on my own pattern that just seemed to meet my criteria as well as the Trouts. When your standing in a “hot river” in the middle of the day and you spot a massive brown that just will not budge for the most ingenious morsel you have in your box whip out a spider. Spiders are protein intensive, they are like baklava on a silver

SHOP NOTES | C.J. BOVA RODS

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