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.
