unlown fishing term 'grass spear'?

[kengore]

I was reading a short story about a young boys introduction to flyishing and came across a term I am not familiar with.... 'grass spear'. In the story the lad opens a bamboo rod case and finds a grass spear under the flap. Anyone know what this is?

The story is British in origin and old enough that greenheart rods are mentioned.

[hairwing]

Kengore,
I am familiar with the term "Bank Spear". Could they be one and the same?
The bank spear is an attachment affixed to the butt end of a rod used to poke the rod in the ground and stand it up vertically to put it out of harms way while unattended. Quite a dangerous gadget! They were knife sharp.
My guess.
HW

[Steven McGarthwaite]

Fly fishing has a long and illustrious history that goes back to the Greeks, or maybe eariler. What we most know about is fly fishing in England, from the 15th Century forward.

Before the use of Splitcande Fly Rods, the fly rods were longer and made out of various section using different woods.

Then with the expantion of the British Empire, other materials became available from the four corners of the world for building fly rods. Cacutta Cane from India, Greenheart for (I cannot remember where, but I think it is from eithe Central or South America), and Tonkin Cane from China.

Wherever the British Empire planted the Union Jack, they did two things, they planted roses and introduce trout.

So maybe the Green Spear is a spear made from Greenheart, which was used for stouter fly rods instead of Tonking Cane.

Catch the fish an pass the fish and rod off to the bestman, who would bring it into the shallow water, while the fly caster was using the second fly rod to catch the next fish, while the bestman would spear the first fish, and then remove the hook from the fish's mouth when the fish was on dry land.

[Clay]

I have no idea, but it makes me think that it could have been another section of rod material which was used for another tip if the first one broke. Total guess of course, but it will be interesting to find out for sure. There are those boards that just deal with boo and it's history. I would post this type of question there. With a quick Google search here is one such board, which I know nothing about except that it popped up on a Google search: http://clarksclassicflyrodforum.yuku.com/

[Jim Cramer]

Just a thought- Bamboo is a type of grass, so perhaps the author was trying to be clever by referring to the bamboo rod under the flap as a sliver or "spear" of grass. Sometimes you can't take things to literally.

[EdD]

Fly fishing has a long and illustrious history that goes back to the Greeks, or maybe eariler. What we most know about is fly fishing in England, from the 15th Century forward.

Before the use of Splitcande Fly Rods, the fly rods were longer and made out of various section using different woods.

Then with the expantion of the British Empire, other materials became available from the four corners of the world for building fly rods. Cacutta Cane from India, Greenheart for (I cannot remember where, but I think it is from eithe Central or South America), and Tonkin Cane from China.

Wherever the British Empire planted the Union Jack, they did two things, they planted roses and introduce trout.

So maybe the Green Spear is a spear made from Greenheart, which was used for stouter fly rods instead of Tonking Cane.

Catch the fish an pass the fish and rod off to the bestman, who would bring it into the shallow water, while the fly caster was using the second fly rod to catch the next fish, while the bestman would spear the first fish, and then remove the hook from the fish's mouth when the fish was on dry land.

Greenheart for flyrods, per Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorocardium

Regards,
Ed

[texfly]

I think your right on the money Jim. I have read that term once or twice myself.

[bobbyg]

I feel it's just another way to describe the rod spear or spike.
Being as how the spear was forced into the ground to stand the rod vertically, it would stand to reason you would look for a soft grassy area
to do that.

bobbyg

[kengore]

Thank's to all for the replies. From the context of the story I'm going to go with BobbyG and Hairwing and assume it was a devise stuck in the ground to hold the rod upright...