I came to fishing rather late, at 35 years old, and fly fishing a little later yet. My first rod was purchased for $8 at an auction of household goods. I hadn?t so much as looked at it, but my wife nudged me and said a fly rod was up, so I figured I?d go as high as $10. It was an old yellow Berkeley Buccaneer 40, 7/8 weight, circa approx 1972, with a cheap reel of undetermined make (but definitely not expensive) and was spooled with what appeared to be 12 or 14# mono. I put some backing and cheap fly line on it, and caught a sunny or two. I decided to test the strength by putting a mulberry on it and dropping it in the water where some big carp were feeding. The rod held up as the carp (the biggest fish I ever landed) took me into the backing twice. After that, I put it away, but with a burning desire to play more fish on fly rods.

A few years later, after I started assembling my own rods (my skill level precludes honestly using the word ?building?), I was waiting for a back ordered reel seat to start my winter project of a 6 wt travel rod, and I was getting antsy. I pulled out that 8wt and thought maybe I should do something with that one while I waited. I removed the guides, cheesy reel seat, and old cork, and took a razor knife to the yellow finish. Underneath was a beautiful reddish brown fiberglass blank, and it took three weeks to carefully remove all the yellow paint and pale green primer. I bought a new grip, a nice aluminum reel seat, and new snake-foot guides (several more than the original had). The end result was a slower action, not unattractive rod with simple green wraps, with a total investment of under $40. It took some time to get used to the speed, but it?s a fair caster if you remember not to muscle it. Where it shines is after the hookup. I find it to be a relaxing rod to cast and one of my favorites for fighting smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna. Occasionally I think about tying up a mulberry pattern?