doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lesson?

I'm always at loose ends this time of year (made worse this year by a persistent flu bug and a bad back) so while going through the typical late winter routines (well...fairly non-typical this year, it was 73 degrees F today), I've been distracting myself by attempting to inexpensively re-enter the old fishing tackle game. I fished old bamboo rods w/silk lines out here for years until the value of my "old" tackle went nuts in the early 2000s. Stuff I'd paid yard-sale prices for in the 80s had become fairly valuable, and...at about that time, I had an expensive older (1930s) rod fail rather catastrophically. Anyway, I peddled the whole lot, went modern, and even bought a few guns with the profits. Fast forward to now. Many of the folks I used to rely on for sources of information and/or good old tackle are either going or gone. If you think the language of old shotguns is archaic, try old cane rods and low-tech reels. In our now "modern and throwaway" society, finding and fishing old blue-collar tackle is considered pretty odd (at least by some of the millennials I now work with). The prices have come down rather sharply on most of it, so getting what I need really isn't too tough (i.e., eBay) but the traditional sources of supply are clearly drying up. Loss of expertise doesn't just affect the gun world. If you're into something fairly obscure, get what you need while you can.

just have to look in the right place

lots of expertise and fishing blue collar gear is not at all unusual

http://classicflyrodforum.com/forum/index.php


bamboo just goes naturally with old doubles

except for a modern spey rod last used in 2009 (later replaced with a bamboo one) i can't remember the last time i fished "plastic"

Mr. Osthaus: I hate to say it but "old" seems to be the one constant here. Only older folks seem to have the soft spot for things like damascus and bamboo. I see very few folks younger than 50 showing much interest in either. Like you, the plastic stuff just leaves me cold. It's very efficient (i.e., works very well) and requires almost no maintenance but...I found that I miss the feel of a rod loading and the "hiss" of a silk line going out through the guides. It may be more nostalgia than anything....but so be it.

Thie generalizations about older liking old doesn't always hold true. Yesterday while buying some Spec. SG HD loads for my beloved 16ga an older gentleman was trading Belgian 12ga O/U two barrel set for brand new engraved Benelli semi-auto. I do not mind fishing tackle Fabrique en Chine. When "depressed" by nostalgia I usually watch old European movies and drink warm Consendonk brew.

I have a closet full of great old bamboo rods, most higher grade Heddons. Have several Presidents, a model 60, and even a model 65 (which might be the only example of that model in existence). Became attracted to them in the 70's and found quite a few. Travelled to Dowagiac, Michigan and befriended Bernard Hill, the retired rod foreman at the Heddon factory. He gave me several tools he used building rods, etc. This was in a time hardly anyone paid attention to cane rods. Today I hardly ever get them out, preferring my old Sage graphite that I don't have to worry about. Time is fast approaching I need to let someone else cherish them....

Inherited three bamboo rods from my father, including an old Orvis. I have tried out two of them and found I like high quality modern rods better. Like so many things it is at times just a matter of taste.

Don't misunderstand me, I still use modern equipment in salt and on the big rivers in Wyoming. The only time I really miss the old stuff is in the more intimate settings of a true "trout" stream. I really liked the blue-collar Grangers (& Heddons) I was fishing in the 80s on the smaller streams and rivers here in Colorado and back the land of my youth (Pennsylvania). My old 8040 Victory was just the ticket in those circumstances, especially when it was lined with silk (which is what it was made to use in 1938). If you've never tried it, you just don't know what you're missing. Considering how well the modern stuff really works, maybe that is a blessing of-sorts, but... I consider myself spoiled for having experienced it and I'm going to do it yet again. What is such a disappointment to me is the large number of folks I used to deal with regularly that aren't around any more. It's hard to stand on the shoulder of giants when there aren't many giants left.

some one once said - all generalizations are false

i attend only one of the bamboo rod makers gatherings each year

there are a lot of grey hairs (and many no hairs) but i have seen a what appears to me to be a growing number of younger folks showing up and displaying their craftsmanship

i expect its the hands on - creating something that draws them, but the art will survive

now if we could get them building double guns

Amen to that.

Personally, I have never liked any kind of plastic fly rod. I only fish split cane and sometimes (for Atlantic salmon) greenheart. Non-organic material rods feel dead in the hand. Even my wife prefers a 14' spliced Grant Vibration Rod made of greenheart for Spey Casting.