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After that long weekend in D.C., I really needed this.
Nice. Where is the stream?
Colorado's South Platte River.
Pfluger 1494? What's the rod?
Yep, a 1494. The rod is a Granger Aristocrat 8040. Blue collar cane!
Cane's insane!
Even more insane, that reel is lined with silk.
Nice 'bows. Looking forward to fishing highlands in Yosemite this summer. Until then, have to settle for mostly stockers and the occasional wild fish.
some how double guns and cane rods balance the year out
my local stream was just dropping and clearing and got out once - when we got clobbered with rain- after a couple days it is almost back into its banks - a few more days if the weather behaves
very nice...thanks...

do you eat erm or trow erm back?
This brings back memories of my younger years in New England. Trout season always opened on April 15. I spent some opening days sweltering or even getting snowed on.
Jim
james, where did you live in ne?
And a time to every purpose under the heaven.
A time to catch trout.
Did you eat & drink & enjoy the good of your labour ?
O.M
Mr. Good and Mr. Moses:

In almost every flyfisherman's past there's a greasy frying pan somewhere. I really don't kill too-many anymore. Way back in the boonies they might have been chow, but after this little adventure I merely celebrated with a libation and some salmon tacos at a local establishment.
I started out using a Phlueger reel and a metal fly rod. My early fly fishing was off of the CA coast in the San Bernadino Mountains. Many years later I moved to Northern Utah and fished almost daily with hand wrapped fiberglass rods and Phlueger reels.
Over the years I have upgraded my fly rods as well as my shotguns.
I now live in Wy and fish the Big Horn River and many of its tributaries with an annual trip to the Bahamas for "dem bones".
Below from top to bottom rods in 9wt., 8wt, 6 wt., and 4wt. The 4wt sports a Pflueger reel.
Massachusetts up in the Berkshires.
Even Iowa has trout. Brook Trout are indigenous to the Upper Iowa River watershed in the very northeast corner of the state. The area is called the Paleozoic plateau, where the glaciers missed and left bluffs and cold water springs. It's also the area that still holds limited numbers of grouse. I'm lucky to live just south of the area, with the nearest trout stream only about 15 minutes away. The fishery is mostly stocked trout from three hatcheries, but the Iowa DNR has been successful in having a few streams where the trout are reproducing naturally. I envy you guys living in areas with large numbers of trout. I was in heaven when I lived in California, and had the whole Sierra Nevada to fish.

Believe it or not, the largest trout I ever caught in Iowa was on a mulberry. I spotted a five pound brood trout feeding on them as they dropped from a tree, I stuck one on a salmon egg hook on a 5X tippet and brought him in on the fly rod..

Regards
Ken
And a time for every purpose under heaven...

Nice pictures. Classic tackle. The reason for the season.

I'm still in Massachusetts and I could be older... but I seem to remember it was the second Saturday in April when the season opened and ice-cold water spilled over the tops of our hippers. But that was in the fifties.
For a fellow Angler and split cane rod fan I suppose I'd better throw on in too. Lagopus.....

Saturday May 6th will mark my 54th consecutive opening day fishing Wisconsin's Wolf River for trout. I'm looking forward to it with just as much anticipation as I did in my younger days, but with all the rains we've had lately the river flows will need to recede a bit for it to be an enjoyable and productive home opener.

Hmmm,

Alright guys, which side of the reel is the handle traditionally supposed to be on? I was taught in the sixties that for right-handed people it was on the right side, and never to be used to reel in a fish. Now, on some TV shows, some actually reel in fish that way. It just doesn't seem right.

Regards
Ken
IMHO, those that cast and reel exclusively from the right side, out of tradition, are a half a bubble from plumb. wink If one is right handed and cast a fly with his or her right arm, does it make sense to you to have to change the rod from the right hand to the left hand in order to reel in line? Of course not! For a right handed caster fly reels should be reeled with the left hand and vice versa for southpaws.

You don't reel in a fish, you reel in slack line.
james: i did most of my trout fishin in the catskill mountain streams of southern ny...however, i did fish the green river and deerfield river around greenfield mass back in the late sixties...were you there then?
I was and the Deerfield was one of my favorites.
Jim
jim: in many ways, those were the good old days, in spite of the disturbing social and political turmoil of the times...

did you happen to know any of the lapointe family in the area?
Lagopus: Gorgeous brown trout! Ours don't quite look like that.

Ken61: I'm a Southpaw so I tend to prefer left hand retrieve. After WWII and the introduction of spin-casting to the masses, left handed fly reels became far-more popular here.
Rubbish. If you can't handle a trout with you're left hand on the rod get off the stream. All the old classic Hardy reels are right hand wind only.

Cane is addictive. So much so I have learned to make my own. Built a little over 20 so far. The one on the bottom of the picture is one of mine.



Matt
Originally Posted By: Wild Skies



I fish an Orvis Battenkill two tip cane rod that was my dad's. I have a Robichaud reel on it that looks very much like this one except my reels are set up for right hand retrieve. I have a couple of other cane rods that were made in Scotland.
I've fished both fresh and salt with flies for decades. If you are fighting big fish, you want to reel with your dominant hand. I'll reel with the left on trout streams. Despite being set up for right handed reeling, a Perfect can be used to reel with the left hand as long as one doesn't reel against too much strain as it will unscrew the side plate. I have several set up that way in 2 7/8" and 3 1/8" for light tippets.
I'm getting back into cane after almost 15-years of only fishing modern stuff. I sold all of my old rods and the English reels for them (mostly Hardy) after my favorite fishing spot was destroyed in a huge fire here in 2003 (the Heyman fire). Prices at the time were sky-high and I realized a significant profit on a bunch of stuff I had mostly sourced in yard sales and dinky flyshops back East in the 1980s. My work allowed me to secure the modern stuff at a "key employee" discount, so I loaded-up. I was mostly fishing in Wyoming anyway, and the modern tackle was a better fit there. In the last year or so, I've been hearing that my old fishing grounds might finally be recovering from the fire and it's aftermath. I had actually been missing my old stuff of-late and when I thought about how I would begin to fish it again, I just couldn't face it without my usual arsenal of older bamboo rods. This time, however, I thought I'd try it with period correct American reels from the 1930s. What a fun process that has been! Much like guns, prices for old tackle are actually somewhat depressed at the moment, so my timing has been pretty good for a change.



Lloyd3, I think the brown trout that came to the U.S were probably of the Loch Leven strain so will be all rather similar in appearance. U.K. brown trout are often river specific and although the same species they will often show distinctive traits due to isolation over time. That trout is from the River Derwent in Derbyshire. Ones from the Lathkill and River Dove, still in Derbyshire and not far distant, can be quite different in appearance. Fascinating fish to study. One of the most beautiful trout strains I ever encountered were in Norway and translate as 'the fine speckled trout'. Here's a River Dove one. Lagopus.....

Lloyd3 nice to see some trout pictures.
I have been fly fishing since I was 14 and now next month I will be 71 and cast right handed and reel left. I have used Hardy reels and Orvis reels made by Hardy and even Scientific Anglers system reels that were made by Hardy. All were reversible.
You play the fish on the rod and reel the slack, and setting up the drag is important.
On a few of my heavy duty reels for steelhead and salmon, they have a clutch plate and one has an anti-reverse handle that would let you get your knuckles banged up. The others when a large fish is on, you have to palm the reel.
When my eyes were good I used to love refinishing old bamboo rly rods with silk thread. Your hands had to be smooth or else you would fray the silk and ruin it. I made bamboo rods from blanks and later made graphite rods from blanks. Right now I have rods from 1 weight to 9 weight in graphite and 3-6 weight in bamboo. The smallest being a 5'9" Orvis Ultralight Fly that is fun to use. I used to have an 8' Orvis Nymph rod that was too much like a buggy whip but it protected 8x tippets, but hard to cast.
Lagoppus - A good friend of mine is involved with the Norbury Fishing Club on the Dove. Ever been there?
JDW,
My experiences parallel yours in so many ways. I cast and play the rod/line/fish with my 'power' arm and control the line and reel with my left, but will swap the rod from right to left while fighting a large fish as the situation requires. I started when I was 11 and learned to tie flies then too. I've been tying almost all of my own flies ever since and have developed some patterns that are extremely effective for myself and a few friends. That's something that requires very smooth fingers too. I used 300 grit sandpaper on my fingers before each session.
Regarding which hand to hold the rod in and which to manage the reel and line with.... It's up to the individual...period!

Tradition is nice but sometimes it isn't comfortable.
There was a time when I studied each and every fly-tying book and entomology book I could get my hands on. I memorized all of the taxonomic names for all insects and every stage of their lives and when they occurred on the rivers and streams I fished. I guess I'm glad I went through that stage - the right gear and the right clothing too... These days you'll see me astream with a very old vest, a camo ball cap, no net, old patched neoprene waders, and three small fly boxes in my vest pockets.
I'll be that white-haired old guy who's having a good time without a care in the world who might sneak a sip from a small silver flask every whenever he releases a nice trout or salmon.
Lloyd: I have an identical Pflueger 1494 round line guard on my desk right now. I favor the old Hardy's but the Pflueger's look great on cane! I'm going to put it on my 8040 and go cast it! Are you fishing Phoenix silk? Great stuff!

Matt
DAM16SXS, I can't remember the age, but an uncle gave me a bunch of fly typing material and an old vice. I messed with a few patterns and like you bought books, many books on fly fishing. My favorite nymphs when there was no hatch were ones with rabbit fur, there is just something about it in the water, in sizes 12-18 it resembles a lot of nymphs. In dry flies I liked the elk hair caddis type and the deer hair wings tied thorax style.
For years we used to go (and everyone else) up to the Beaverkill in N.Y. around Memorial Day and fish the famous pools for the March Brown hatch. Also loved to fish the West Branch of the Delaware, talk about finicky trout, you had to match the hatch or dredge the bottom. I always said a 12" brown in the Delaware outfought a 20" stocked fish.
To show you how much of an addict I was, I used to carry a seine with me. My friend would go upstream slightly and move rocks with his feet and I would put the siene in and see what the predominant nymphs were. During the March Brown hatch, in the morning and early afternoon it was fun to wade the middle of the stream and cast downstream to each bank for the browns scrounging for march brown nymphs getting ready to emerge.
A good sulpher hatch on the Little Lehigh in eastern Pa was something to see around Memorial Day also. So many flies on the water and so many fish rising. And then there is Penns Creek.
JDW - I even tried the tricorythodes hatch on the Battenkill. Talk about so many flies on the water... It was an exercise in futility. In a whole weekend I caught two browns less than 9 inches. AND I tied my own imitation Tricos on #24 hooks. That's when I could see well enough to do that...

I used to seine the shallows too - even deeper water to waist deep. I learned a lot by doing that - especially that the nymphs were drifting at all levels of the water column.

When there was a rise somewhere in the vicinity of your fly you lifted your rod just in case. Hell, I still do that now at dusk in the spinner falls.
On the Au Sable (Michigan) I have a friend who is tying tricos down to size 30. Not me.
I was fishing this afternoon and it was a pretty good one even with the rain. Using a Vince Cummings SuperLite glass rod and Hardy Featherweight reel. I've been fly fishing since I was about 14. Fifty-six years of casting and reeling with my right hand.

Dennis
Thanks for bringing back fond memories for me. I learned how to fish on the Mettawee River. Caught many Rainbow, Brown and just one Brook trout.
Lagopus, two strains of browns were introduced into the U.S. waters in the late 19th Century. The Loch Leven as you noted, but in addition, the"von Behr" strain from Germany.

Left to right: The eponymous Hardy Perfect, first produced in 1891, 3 1/8", 3 3/8" and 2 7/8". Note the ball bearings.
English guns have nothing over the quality of the old Hardy reels. Tight Lines, Gil
The history of trout introduction in America is fascinating. Lots of mixing as far as species and strains. I remember fishing the Bighorn Mountains when I was young, most of the trout found were Brookies introduced from the East, the original Rainbows and Cutthroats were rare, but you could still find a few, and in addition there were Lake Trout still found in the lakes.

Browns were/are common in the Owens River East of the Sierra Nevada, you had to go to higher elevations to find the native Golden Trout.

About 20 years ago there was a wild Brookie caught here in Iowa, since then they're trying to reintroduce them. Browns are reproducing in some streams, but the Rainbows are strictly a stocked fish.

Regards
Ken
Lagopus: I could be wrong, but I don't remember ever catching a brown out here in the Western states with quite that coloration. Ours seem much paler, w/o the rich golden hues, even on fairly big fish.

CitoriFeather16: I fished a used Phoenix silk line that I picked up in March for the very first time last Sunday and I was floored by how nice it was. The price for them (almost $300) always stopped me from buying one when I first started fishing silk (almost 25-years ago). Now I'm sorry I waited so long. I am going to try a new line dressing called Otter Butter on it next trip. From everything I've read, it is a significant improvement over mucilin and should float the line for almost 7-hours of continuous use. Really looking forward to that.

Gil: Hardy Perfects may truly be the ultimate expression of what a fly reel could and should be. I have owned and used many and they are all simply stunning in form and function. I'm probably not quite done with them yet, but I'm on sabbatical for a while as I learn about our older domestic reels. Old Pfluegers have been a revelation for me, and I just got my first Shakespeare Russell today (a pre-1935 Model 1893). I'm looking forward to learning more about them all through actual use.
The coloration of a brown trout varies significantly depending on the time of year and the composition of the stream bottom, e.g., freestone/sand or a stream bottom of mud/detritus.

The old Pflueger reels' drag can be vastly improved by milling out an opening in the side of the frame to allow you to apply finger pressure against the spool, giving the same effect of 'palming the rim' on more modern reels.
Lloyd, I've had an old raised pillar hard rubber sideplated Leonard half-handle and a Salmon vom Hofe. The Leonard went the way of dialing for dollars instant cash. One American reel worth pursuing is the old Johnson Magnetic. It wasn't a bad reel, fairly smooth and with fewer screws to loosen and lose than the old Pfluegers. (which I've also fished wink )
Best, Gil
Gil:

I'll look into that one.

My latest acquisition:



When I was a boy if you were into outdoor sports you would most likely be both a hunter and a fisherman. Where we lived we fished in the spring and Summer for salt water fish like Grey trout, Specaled trout, Rock Fish and later Summer flounder. When unable to hit the Chesapeake bay you might drop a line for small or large mouth bass or with small children find a hot spot for crappie. I even learned how to fly fish using small popping jigs for bass. In the Fall it was birds both upland and waterfowl with one week of deer hunting.

Somewhere or some time along the way there was a big disconnect for most of my friends. If it was 70-80% who both fished and hunted in my youth it can't be much over 10-20% who do both these days and maybe only 1-2% who hunt only. By far I have more fishing only friends these days. I figure the cost and effort to keep dogs for hunting along with the decline in places to hunt was a major reason.

I feel sorry for those who never get to see a marsh at first light. Never get teased by a black duck which makes five passes just out of range or never watched a goose slip air under its wings to land in your decoys. Just like I would hate to never feel the hit of a big fish when it attacks the "bait"".
Lloyd, there are photos in some of Joe Brooks's books depicting the Johnson Reel with him holding one.
Gil
Slough Creek cutt, August, 2000.
The rod is an Art Weiler reproduction of a Garrison 202E, the reel a Hardy knockoff (since replaced by a Peerless). The fly a size 18 trico pattern on 7x.

KYJon: Amen! I couldn't imagine doing one w/o the other.

DaveinMaine: Gorgeous rod and fish! See any bears up there?

Gil: Thank you!
Thanks, Lloyd.

No bears that trip, though I did see a grizz tearing up a different meadow in July '93, from about 350 yards. That was close enough for me b/c I did the math and figured he might beat me to the car.

As to the rod, I think if you ask in bamboo circles you'll find Art Weiler has about as good reputation for quality and price as one can have. An old guy I knew who owned and fished Garrison's rods fished my repro and said it was indistinguishable from Garry's production. I bought another rod from Art this winter, his reproduction of a Dickerson 7613. It cost me all of $1000 delivered to my door. (Every penny well-spent - consider that a lot of new graphite is in the $750+ range.) Art has told me in the past he keeps his prices low because he wants people to fish his rods.
Originally Posted By: GLS
Lagopus, two strains of browns were introduced into the U.S. waters in the late 19th Century. The Loch Leven as you noted, but in addition, the"von Behr" strain from Germany....

The first picture that Lagopus showed of the Brown trout with the very large spots looks(?) like a Yugoslavian brown. I don't know the history of it, but it was introduced to a few waterways, I think primarily out west. I've seen one of them, maybe a hybrid of some sort, landed, and a buddy was supposed to have a different one mounted, but I've never caught one myself.
I agree that the various strains of browns have different coloring and density and sizes of spots. The "Marble trout" of the Balkans (which I've only seen in pictures) have a vastly different spotting pattern and density than browns from elsewhere. But I also believe that the conditions in which the individual fish live have a lot to do with their coloring.

Eastern (US) browns seem to be darker overall than those from western rivers. A lot of the good to better brown trout water in the east has a substantial amount of shade, while (my experience with) western waters shows the western to have fewer and less dense overhead vegetation. You'll get darker fish in the east b/c they live in dimmer surroundings.

I am of the belief that the amount of light the fish get - taken in through their eyes - governs how their body colors itself. I saw a very clear example of this some years ago. There was a large-ish brown who lived in the tangle of stuff that had built up around a gabion on the bank of the Little Lehigh. At some point, this fish had sustained an injury to one eye which apparently left it blind on one side (the right). That side of its body was almost black while the other (left) side had more or less normal coloration. It habitually rose and took flies on its left but not its right side.

I don't know whether there's any "hard" science to back it up, but I saw it and believe it.
It is scientifically proven that the streambed composition/coloration and hue (light gravel or sand of a freestone river vs. the dark mud and detritus of a slow-moving stream, or pond, or lake) are far more significant factors in the light or dark 'coloration' of a trout than if its habitat is shady or not.
Gil's shot of his early Hardy Perfects inspired me to share this little assortment of reels from Akron, Ohio and Kalamazoo, Michigan. No-where near as well made as those Hardy reels, but appropriate for the blue collar cane that I'm fishing these days. They range in age from the early 1930s to the early 1970s. To me they are the pumpguns of the fly tackle world. Relatively cheap, fun, and very efficient.

Originally Posted By: DAM16SXS
It is scientifically proven that the streambed composition/coloration and hue (light gravel or sand of a freestone river vs. the dark mud and detritus of a slow-moving stream, or pond, or lake) are far more significant factors in the light or dark 'coloration' of a trout than if its habitat is shady or not.


Being a south GA boy, I'm not much familiar with trout but the largemouth (green trout) around here respond to surroundings for their coloration. A bass out of a cypress pond will be almost black in coloration whereas a farm pond fish will often be colorless white...Geo
I think trout fly reels are badly overrated. All you need them for is a line storage locker. I admit that the new, high tech reels being produced today are pretty, and great examples of the machinist's art, but who needs them, except to lighten you wallet? I love my 30 year old Hardy Lightweights
My trout fly reels are also Hardy Lightweights and have been for about forty years. I still have a few that have never had a line installed. I may have too much fly fishing stuff.
I do agree that the average stream caught trout does not require a reel. But, when you get a trout that you measure in pounds instead of inches a good reel comes in handy.

Dennis
I recall when the Lightweights weren't available in the U.S. for an interval and had to be bought directly from England. Of all the Hardy classics, one of the most desirable for trout is the St. George.
Fishing light tippets and small flies for trout that can scoot, 14-16"+ a smooth drag to prevent spool overrun is nice to have. One of the simplest systems is the "click" pawl/gear system with the pawl positions reversed to allow less force needed to pull line off the reel without overrun. Gil
In the early/mid nineties there was a British company (Sue Burgess) which was selling Hardy into the US at substantially reduced prices, until the US reps got wind of it, and had them shut down from selling in the colonies
For Dave in Maine, Your picture reminded me of my first trip to Slough Creek in the early 60's. Fishing was so good it got tiring. I camped in the second meadows with purely awful gear but had an experience I'll never forget.
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