Last year, I had a day of salmon fishing that I’ll never forget. My good friend Jonas and I fished on Father’s Day together. It was cold and wet, and we had the river to ourselves. We both were fishing bamboo Spey rods with a guide, Alex Mallais, we love. Five minutes in and Jonas hooked into a 30 / 30+. Fast forward to lunch, and with a sandwich literally in my mouth, I hooked into a red hot chromer that felt the same – but came up a bit short of that mark. Still, two fish of that size and color with a good friend is a truly, truly great day. (For those wondering, Jonas was fishing a Bob Clay and I was fishing a Shamburg.)

I’ve grown up around fish carvings, and always wanted to make one of my own. After Jonas moved into a new house, he had a conspicuous empty spot above his fireplace mantle. It was calling for a carving to memorialize the day.

I started by making a cardboard cutout, taken from measurements from carvings I have of fish of the same size. I made some adjustments based upon photos of the fish and my memory from the day. This would serve as my template which I would transfer onto the wood.

Looking for the right piece of wood, I stopped in at Longleaf Lumber in Cambridge, Mass. They have an incredible selection of reclaimed wood — from barn beams to old wide plank flooring, etc. I shopped around and finally found a piece of reclaimed redwood that not only had beautiful grain, but was large enough to accommodate two carvings. A fish like this seemed worth the splurge.

I then translated the cutout onto the redwood and, knowing I would benefit from some expert help, I turned to my good friend Rob Robillard. He’s a long-time local carpenter, and the man behind A Concord Carpenter and ToolBox Buzz. He’s also the former Boston Globe handyman columnist and an all around great guy. He loved the idea and was happy to help.

And so I took the redwood to his shop (which is incredible) and we started by cutting the board in half with a track saw. We then cut the outline and sanded the edges. I then took it home and spent a lot of time sanding it with increasingly fine sandpaper.

I decided to finish the wood with some tung oil to darken the wood and bring out the grain.

Delivering it, it came as a total surprise to Jonas – and much to my relief, not only did he love it, but his wife did as well, and it not happily hangs above their fireplace mantle.