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3. What was your very first fly rod, Page 2

I like the way you think mister! :)



Me too...I have a friend that still uses them because they and he are so cheap. :) He won't pay top dollar for anything.

Spence

jmd 123 wrote;

"I wonder how many of us had this as our first fly LINE!"

Hey! stop making fun of that line. That's still my line of choice.













Just kidding although at a fly show in February I bought two blemished DT444's for $20 each. Nice #4's for fine presentation on flat water.

Well, I wouldn't go that far. But in spite of all the great lines being put out by RIO and SA of late, the old 444 DT is still a damn good line. It's finish doesn't hold up to age and sun as well as the newer stuff, but I'm pretty hard on lines and rarely own one long enough to fail for those reasons anyway. Besides, at half the price. I can have a new line more often, and there's nothing like a new line!:)

My first fly rod was a Revelation (Western Auto) 8 1/2" foot glass rod rated for an HDH (I think this would be equiv. to a DT6F in today's parlance). I got it in 1962 when I was 9 years old and I think I paid $11.95 for it, a king's ransom at the time..

The first two years I had it, I only used it to drop fish worms, caddis larvae (and the occasional salamander I found under a log) through gaps in the alder hells on the little trout streams of NW Pennyslvania.

Then, when I was 11, I lobbied my folks for a new rod for my birthday because I had decided to become "serious" about this fly fishing stuff. So, I needed a "real" rod. The real rod I had in mind (and got for my 11th birthday) was a 6' 3" Berkeley Parametric glass rod for a 6 wgt. I think this was $28 bucks, IIRC. I continued to suspend salamanders and other living things with with this rod in the little creeks, but I also began using it to ride my bike the half mile to the local 75 acre glacial pothole of a lake and fish from shore over bedded bluegills with rubber spiders and McGinty Wooly Worms I made myself with my genuine fly tying kit purchased from that eventually convicted felon, George L. Herter.

Then a couple years later, I decided it was time to start fishing for trout with flies and I used a pile of my paper route money to buy a Fenwick FF605. Like $65 bucks or so. I bought it at J.C. Penny of all places. It was a beautiful small stream tool then and it remains a beautiful small stream tool. I get it out once a year or so and exercise it.

After that, it all kind of dissolves in a blur of other Fenwick glass rods and then, Orvis Far & Fines, J. Kennedy Fishers, one T&T that I won at a TU banquet and lower end Diamondbacks and St Croix. Other than my Far & Fines, I've never spent more than $150 on a rod. I've never had to spend more. I dislike fast rods and the slower action rods I like are almost always at the lower end of the price spectrum.

Guys, a few years ago I had a Cortland 555 Clear Floater (you heard right, clear floater) in WF5. Stiffest danged fly line I've ever used, but it casted remarkably well and had a certain novelty value. Caught a whole lot of fish on it too!

NO disrespect meant to any Cortland lines or other products. What I meant was that "back in the day" (a tired phrase if ever there was one) the 333 was pretty much the hot or at least standard stuff (1985) with the 444 series coming out (I think) around the later 80s (at least that's when I noticed it, correct me if I'm wrong). I've owned several Cortland lines and they've always done the job well for me.

I am now working with two Orvis $70 Wonderlines that seem to always be cracking just above the connector loop - ?? They do cast very nicely, however, especially the WF3 that I have been using since last summer. Did the job on a nice little local (20-minutes drive) stream for me yesterday!

Jonathon

Lee, could you further explain. I'd hate to think that many fond boyhood memories could be obfuscated.

Rleep wrote;

"but I also began using it to ride my bike the half mile to the local 75 acre glacial pothole of a lake and fish from shore over bedded bluegills with rubber spiders"

Boy this really brings back fond memories! There used to be a pond on the back side of a mountain in NJ that was about 4 miles from my house. Back then parents didn't need to worry (so it seemed) about letting youngsters from going off on their own during summer vacation.

I used to walk those 4 miles a couple of times a week with my fly rod, a spool of Gladding tippet material and the little 3" x 3" Perrine spring clip fly box. It had a bunch of those black and yellow sponge bugs with the elastic band legs and also a couple #12 poppers. There were two specific spots when the big bluegills were on the beds where I really learned to cast and catch fish. One was on a downed tree parallel with the shore and I'd just roll cast the popper, or cricket, out and in a few seconds a big 'gill would come to investigate and I'd twitch it and he'd tip up and eat it. The other place was in the shallows on the other end and I could see dozens of beds each with a fish in them. It was great fun and those 'gills were 6" - 8" and full of fight as this pond had virtually no pressure.

I received my first one as a gift in the late 60's Jonathon and don't know how many years they were made before that. That peach color was pretty distinctive. Matt, do you remember when they came out? Anyway, they were tons better than the ivory Air Cells IMHO.

Cortland's "Company History" site gives 1953 as the introduction year for the 333. "Fly Rod & Real" states 1964 as the introduction year for the 444. Personally, I don't recall the 444 that far back.

Thanks, Al.

Falsify wrote;

"Fly Rod & Real" states 1964 as the introduction year for the 444. Personally, I don't recall the 444 that far back."

Yep, I sure remember the Air Cell Ivory lines! Considering I was making my first real forays into fly fishing only back in 1965 the 1964 inaugrual date for the 444 sounds good.

It's not the kind of data that one really needs, or cares, to remember but I do recall having both for awhile and then phasing out the Air Cell lines in favor of the Peach 444. Part of the reason was Cortland would often just send me a new line when I told them how I loved the line but it was cracked so bad it would hang up on the guides, not to mention it was sinking.

I've never been one to have much allegiance to any one line maker. If they floated at least a season without getting cracks and I could get them at a price less than any others that was my line! Luckily for me a buddy was in the Orvis Pro Guide program and he was getting me Orvis lines for decades at cost. I still have a bunch of WF Wonderlines, somewhat used, wrapped up on old copies of Flyfishermen magazine!

>>convicted felon, George L. Herter.>>


"Lee, could you further explain. I'd hate to think that many fond boyhood memories could be obfuscated."

Not to worry...:) So far as I know, George didn't do anything that wasn't (at least in George's eyes), both necessary and for the betterment of the sport. I'll get to that below..

Finding information on Herter's online is tough, a lot more difficult than I would have thought. Other than a cutesy 2008 NYT essay on George's many eccentric books and a trickle of people posting on sporting-related message boards and all asking the same question: WhatthehelleverhappenedtoHerter's?, there isn't much info on the last years of the company and what finally put them out of business.

So, I'll have to go from memory. This is both good and bad because at the same time that I'm more than old enough to remember quite a few things, I'm also more than old enough to misremember what I do, umm, remember.

But anyway, Herter's, near as I can recall folded up once and for all in the late 70's, I'm gonna say 1977 or 78. But I could be off by a couple years. There were 3 major reasons they folded up, as I recall: 1) Their product quality had gone right down the tubes, as compared to the 60's and before. George had been on the lead edge of the innovative use of off shore sourcing to keep prices down while maintaining decent product quality. When wages started going up in Japan (the source of a lot of his products), I think he tried to source a lot of his stuff elsewhere on the Pacific Rim (Taiwan, Korea, etc.) and the result was junk, junk and more junk. This hurt them. 2) Cabela's was growing and gathering steam and had a much smarter business plan, offering a mix of their own products and known name brands. By the mid-70's, they were eating George's lunch. At the same time, the Perkins' had re-focused Orvis and made it into a major mail order player. In addition, they put this multi-tier Orvis dealer network in place, and half or more of the independent shops in this group were active in mail order themselves as independent entities selling Orvis products as a portion of their overall mix. All this took another major bite out of George's lunch.

Finally (and to address your question), towards the end, I distinctly remember George getting caught in a USF&WS sting operation for trafficking in protected animal skins (Polar Bear, certain seals, etc.) and maybe some exotic birds, that were protected or forbidden to import as well. And while I don't think he did any time, I think that the substantial fines he ended up saddled with were about the last nail in the coffin and before too long, Cabela's owned the Herter name and converted the big Herter's shipping depot in Mitchell, SD into one of their first big box retail stores.

So, there's probably a bit of hyperbole in referring to George as a convicted felon. But I'm pretty sure he got caught on the wrong side of the law in the sting operation mentioned above and that it was a major factor in the end of the company.

But, I'll be damned if I can find anything on the in-ter-net to corroborate my memory as I have related it here.

Felon or not, George was one of my boyhood heroes. Well, maybe not so much a hero as a source of amusement and amazement that never ran dry. My copies of his Philadelphia Yellow Pages-size catalogs were all speckled with raisin bran and saltines crumbs and peanut butter because I took them everywhere with me. I read them at breakfast, lunch and sitting on the couch in the evening, snacking. They were Grade A Dream Books, perfect for a fishing nut dreamer of a kid like me. George was a big part of my boyhood.

BTW: Here's the NYT essay from a couple of years ago. Its actually a pretty good piece considering that it appeared in the Voice of Arrogance (The NYT). They usually write this sort of stuff looking straight down their noses. But this was pretty good: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/Collins-t.html

When in comes to low-end fly lines, my vote goes to the Aquanova lines made in Guelph, Ontario. They have pretty utilitarian tapers that cast well and the price sure is right: they have two series of lines, one at approx. 15 bucks US retail and the other at about 25 bucks. They don't perform like a 75 dollar line, but they don't cost 75 bucks either. You have to keep them relatively clean and they stiffen slightly in the cold. But, with a little care, they last a long time and are good lines. I'd put them commensurate with the 333, the SA Supra series and the Cabela's branded lines, all of which cost twice as much or more.

I first came across them about 6 years ago when I drove the 300 miles from home to fish the Iowa Spring Creeks for the first time. Upon arrival, I found that I'd left my gear bag home. So, I went to the only place in Decorah, IA that sells sporting goods at 9PM, Wally World and bought a Wal-Mart brand WF5F (which was an Aquanova Canadian line) and a 20 dollar Shakespeare fly combo. I left the rod at the Super 8 where I was staying and spooled my new fly line on the reel. I ran my Mucilin cloth over the line and it shot through the guides like poop through a goose and floated high with only an occasional touchup. It saved my trip. I took it home and dyed its original white to blue denim with Rit (I always a blue fly line) and to this day, I have it spooled on my old 1492 Medalist as an extra spare in case I lose/destroy my main spare which is an old 444 DT5F.

Wal-Mart no longer carries the Aquanova lines, but there are about a zillion places you can buy them online. I think they're worth twice or more what you pay for them. Good lines..

Thanks Lee, for the insightful info on Herter's demise. As an "old timer" myself, I have many fond boyhood memories of Herters and Abercrombie & Fitch (both victims of the changing business climate of the '70's)

The prose George used to hawk his goods in his catalogs was so much fun! The trade in feathers and fur at the time was very convoluted and open to interpretation. Frankly, the regulators were more concerned with duty fees and proper paperwork than anything else as endangered species concerns had yet to really take hold. I think it was more akin to an argument with the IRS over taxes. My understanding is that the dispute was one of many that were resolved in bankruptcy court (with probably more than a little politics involved). To call him a felon is pretty harsh as I'm not aware of any conviction for even a misdemeanor over the affair, though I'm sure he paid some fines.

Fenwick fiberglass 7' #6. I still have it...I have all of the rods I have ever owned save two, one that shattered and one that I sold. Not sure why I save some of them...

Cortland 8' 5 WT (cant remember model) - great rod to learn on. Wish my brother hadn't slammed it in the car door ha, but it gave me an excuse to upgrade.

This is off topic but I use the Canadian Aquanova lines for all my steelhead fishing and find them to do a good job as 99% of my casting is roll casting nymphs and egg flies. I use a WF#6 for steelhead in PA and OH. I also use the Aquanove in WF#7 floater and sink tip for streamer work and can easily throw 60' with just one false cast. I get them on Ebay for about $14 each.

Been a long time since my last submission but I couldn't resist this one. Actually, the first fly rod I used, (with worms) was an unknown bamboo that belonged to one of my uncles who was off fighting the war. (WW2) I used it from age 6 to 9 when he came back. The first rod I bought was a True Temper Sportsman which came out shortly after the war and served me well as I switched to fly fishing in 1949. I don't remember what year it rusted through and broke as I attempted to pull a fly out of a tree. A Berkley glass, followed by a Phillipson glass, a Leonard or three, Granger etc. rounded out my aquisitions. I can't remember the lines that I used, only they were level until after college and maybe even the navy. I became a dedicated Cortland 444 guy in the early '70s and still am. I do most of my fishing In the Delaware watershed and mostly the E. Branch. I guess I must like technical water...georges

A cheapo rod bought in one of those packaged deals where you get the rod, reel and line all for about $70 at Walmart!! My first "real" rod that I purchased is a St. Croix Imperial 2wt 7' for small stream fishing. Love that rod!!

I still have my old Imperial. I love mine, too. You ever cast the new models?