07-12-2010, 03:24 PM
Flygoddess: My flyrod back then was an old 50's Shakespeare Howald glass rod with a cork handle. Started fishing for bluegill and bass in the ponds around the valley I grew up in. Had that almost universal green floating line on a small Martin single action fly reel. It was pretty easy to grab. I may have never let go of it? The cans of beer for some reason were floating away and naturally that was a high priority. I still have that old red and white Shakespeare rod along with a collection of others from short 7 footers to the more typical 9 footers. I love the action of vintage glass rods and fish them almost exclusively; both fly and spinning. I only have one graphite fly rod; a custom D&S 5 wt. rod (Sage blank) given to me by my wife, daughter, and grandson at Xmas several years ago. I just put a Lamson Konic on it last year. I have over 20 vintage rods of various configurations. Almost all Shakespeare with a couple of odd balls like Horrocks-Ibbotson, Heddon, and Garcia Conlon. I think the glass Shakespeare is one of the most beautiful rods ever made. My personal favorites are the maroon and white or red and white wrapped 50-60's era colors. I now match many of them up with the old automatic fly reels of the same era. I just recently bought a beautiful maroon and gold Garcia automatic, unused in the original box. Still has it's original reel stickers plus the price sticker on the box from Longs Drug Store. I collect mint or near mint examples only.
An added note to all who appreciate vintage fly gear: While in Europe in the mid-70's I flew into various cities in England on weekly "milk" runs. We used to hit the old fishing and bait shops looking for vintage Hardy cane rods. Liverpool had a wonderful old store complete with some very salty old gentlemen. I bought 5 or 6 really pristine examples in the first year before the word got out that Americans fancied their old "junker" rods. The most I paid for one was around 15 pounds. Typically, they wanted 5 to 7 pounds. Then suddenly, they wanted 50 to 100 pounds for mediocre or broken tip rods and naturally the supply dried up. Sold off the beautiful Hardys to a fellow pilot before I returned to the states and have regretted that decision ever since.
Only things I have left from that venture are a few vintage fly boxes full of English hand-tied streamer flys that I used to pick up simply for the beautiful workmanship and awesome colors.
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An added note to all who appreciate vintage fly gear: While in Europe in the mid-70's I flew into various cities in England on weekly "milk" runs. We used to hit the old fishing and bait shops looking for vintage Hardy cane rods. Liverpool had a wonderful old store complete with some very salty old gentlemen. I bought 5 or 6 really pristine examples in the first year before the word got out that Americans fancied their old "junker" rods. The most I paid for one was around 15 pounds. Typically, they wanted 5 to 7 pounds. Then suddenly, they wanted 50 to 100 pounds for mediocre or broken tip rods and naturally the supply dried up. Sold off the beautiful Hardys to a fellow pilot before I returned to the states and have regretted that decision ever since.
Only things I have left from that venture are a few vintage fly boxes full of English hand-tied streamer flys that I used to pick up simply for the beautiful workmanship and awesome colors.
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