EclecticGuy

As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I was asked to contribute to a fishing exhibit being created for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.A group of 5 of us – The Van Buren Boys – are creating a period rod, reel, horse hair line, creel, flies and baits. Our ringleader, Dr. Todd, is documenting the work and Van Buren’s fishing history in a book that will be offered at the museum.

My contribution is the reel and a horse hair line. I’ve already blogged about how I rediscovered line making, so I won’t cover … Continue Reading

The new Tenkara Fly Fishing DVD by Tenkara USA is very well done! I just received my copy and watched it last night. I actually attended the presentation by Dr. Ishigaki at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center in May last year. That is where I got my introduction to tenkara and got hooked on it. Since then, most of my local river (small stream) fishing has been tenkara.

The section “Tenkara in the Land of Little Rivers” was shot in the Catskills. One of the attendees, … Continue Reading

A new customer commissioned me to make this special furler for him. He makes furled leaders for sale on his Streamside Leader web store. He wanted a 3 strand furler with a central hook to do a power reverse twist! We worked together for a few weeks to come up with this basic design.

… Continue Reading

For the last several weeks I’ve noticed strange things on my blog. For instance, when editing a post, my theme’s header appeared in the edit area! Occasionally I would see load failures on admin and blog pages. Yesterday, when I returned from SuperBoo VII, I logged in to post and there were no editing tools! I loaded a previous post and the text area was blank – or so I thought. Turned out the text was all white and I could see it if I selected … Continue Reading

Here is the book overview, description and author information for my book.

BOOK OVERVIEW

148 pages • 107 B&W photographs and illustrations • includes full scale reel plans and design templates • 8.5” x 11” hardcover • spiral bound to lie flat on your workbench

BOOK DESCRIPTION

In The Reelsmith’s Primer, author Michael L. J. Hackney has finally made reelsmithing accessible to the inspired angler. With a few basic hand tools, an electric drill, and Michael’s proven techniques, material selections, and clear step-by-step … Continue Reading

Here it is, my new book! It went to press on Friday and it will take about 5 weeks to print. With its completion, I’ve fulfilled one of my personal goals – to write a how-to book. I’m not sure why that has been a goal, perhaps it has something to do with being a fan of the second Bob Newhart show, “Newhart“. In this series, Bob played an innkeeper and a do-it-yourself book author in Vermont. Throw in fly fishing and it would … Continue Reading

I’ve just completed the cover design for my book The Reelsmith’s Primer! I am now completely done with everything. I wanted to feature a photo of some of my reels on the back cover so I set up this photo. I call it a “family portrait” since it includes my very first reel (the one sitting on the deerskin pouch) to my most recent (the black and brass one).

I also took this photo of my most recent reel.

This … Continue Reading

I like to ice fish several time a year. I’d do it more if I had more time! Several years ago, I started ice fishing with my son’s Boy Scout Troop when they have there annual winter cabin camping trip in January. The camp has a beautiful lake loaded with fish. So, to cut costs, I designed and built a few tip-ups to use. Surprisingly, there is very little information on tip-up building on the web, so here is an article I wrote: Ice Fishing Tip-Up

Hopefully this will help some people get started. Please note, the end of … Continue Reading

Each year, I build a few special fly rods to donate to charities and conservation groups. An old friend from graduate school (CU Boulder) still lives in Colorado with his wife and they are active Trout Unlimited members. Long story short, they asked if I would build a rod for their annual raffle to raise money for a river restoration project in Trinidad, CO. Here is the result:

I call this rod the “Aspen” since it is finished to look like aspen bark. The rod itself is … Continue Reading

I’ll be doing a fly tying demonstration at the Evening Sun Fly Shop in Peperrell, MA on Sunday January 10th, 2010 from 10:30 am to 2 pm. Stop by and see how this great pattern is tied and say hello! You also have to check out Charlie’s new video on the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers!