Over the last month or so my friend Kurt and I have been helping our friend Charlie go through his extensive rod collection. Charlie has been acquiring rods since the 80's and currently has over 200 fly rods. He has rods in bamboo, glass, and graphite, ranging from 2 weights to 10 weights. Among all these rods are some that I would readily classify as real dogs, but many of them are really great rods. A few years ago he let me cast a 7' 3 weight rod built from a Fisher fiberglass blank. These blanks came out in the late 70's when Tom Morgan designed the Winston Stalker series of 2, 3, and 4 weight rods, the first mass produced UL fly rods. Shortly afterward Fisher came out with UL rods under their own label. Charlie promised to give me this rod about 5 years then couldn't find it. I am not certain we found the same rod, but we did find a rod built on a Fisher blank that was marked as a 3 weight. I found it cast very well, both in close and out to 45-50 feet with a Barrio Small Stream WF2 line. This rod went home with me. Today we were playing with some rods again, including an immaculate Orvis 6'6" One Ounce 2 weight rod, with original tube and rod sock. This rod also cast very well with the Small Stream WF2. He asked if I liked it, and I replied "of course I do". He gave me this rod also. Charlie has a very difficult time selling rods because he always wants maximum value for anything he sells, but for a friend he is extremely generous. I can't wait to put these rods to work.
Larry
|