doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Off topic: "For everything, there is a season..."

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.

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.

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