Dblackman brought up something i don’t think about often and that’s my first fly rod.
David says that his first fly rod and the first fly he caught a fish on will stay with him forever.
I don’t have the first fly that i caught a fish on but i do have my first flyrod.
Got it when i was 9 from Thrifty Drug Store in Richmond, CA. That was in '55.
I fished it a lot over many years, clear up into the 80’s since it was my only flyrod.
All it says on it is ‘Signature’. I don’t know if that’s a brand or model name. It’s a 7 footer
and when i was 9 it seemed a mile long. If i had to choose a weight designation for it,
I’d call it a 6. It’s a handful compared to the rods of today but i was used to it and i didn’t
imagine that there was much better until around 1980.
It’s blue with blue and white wraps…very crude with little finish. I haven’t
fished it for a while but i think i will again soon just because. I’ll even line
the Viscoy reel Grandad gave me and i think i’ll go for trout since that’s all
i ever wanted to catch when i first started. the cork grip is intact and so are
all the guides and tip top…a steel ferruled 2 piece with a lot of memories on
it.
I remember checking Thrifty’s often and saving for a flyrod and one day they
had put out the blue one and i had enough money finally…$4.16 if i remember
correctly. No more than $4.xx though, i know that for sure. Happy day that was.
So I’m wondering who all here in FAOL still has their first flyrod and if there
is some kind of story behind it. The best part of my first flyrod purchase was
that when i came home with it and with no reel, Grandad broke out a trunk
of old stuff and handed me the Viscoy. From then on i was pretty much on my
own but i’d been reading Field & Stream for 2 or so years while i was saving
the money to buy my first flyrod so i kind of knew what to do.
How 'bout it ? Anyone have their first flyrod still? Thanks Dblackman,
you made me take a trip back in time that i always enjoy.
Dad bought me my first fly rod about 25 years ago. It was an orvis clearwater 7’6" 5 wt, 2 piece. I used it exclusively until two years ago when I bought an 8 wt for salmon/steelhead (and then another, and then another…)
I wanted to wet a line early this spring and was hoping to catch some bluegills that might have moved onto the beds. I grabbed the 5 wt and headed out about sun up. Second or third cast I heard an odd sound and felt some sort of thump that made me think I hit the rod with my fly on the backcast. It was a dry fly and the thump felt like I had hit the rod with a some weight. The same thing happened on the next cast. I waded back to shore to look at the rod, line and fly. The rod had shattered about 2/3 the way up the bottom piece.
Orvis replaced the rod. I like the replacement, but its not the same as using the old 5 wt. I wish I had been able to hang onto it, if only to look at the scratches and remember how each one got there.
I have my first rod, at least most of the pieces :mrgreen:
It was a Japanese cane, 9’ with variegated wraps and cheap aluminum reel seat
Got it at the Two Guys department store and as I remember it cost $3, but I could be wrong about that.
I did catch my first trout on the fly on it, but mostly I fished it with bait.
Worked very well for high-sticking red wigglers through pocket water even though it was a bit heavy for a kid.
It snapped one afternoon in the electric tailgate window of my dad’s Rambler wagon along with granddad’s H-I Governor
:rolleyes:
My very first fly rod was a Shakespeare combo (5/6) I bought at Wally’s for $ 19.99. I used the reel with no backing and had a level line. It included a set of flies (not very well tied either lol)
A couple of guys made fun of me when they saw me with this combo. lol. Unfortunately I don’t have it anymore. I sure caught fish with it, I believe my very first one was a bluegill at Road Runner park in Arizona.
I can well remember my first flyrod, although it disappeared years ago. My older brother returned from a tour of duty with the Air Force in Japan in 1953. He had heard from my mother that I loved to fish (Cane Pole type). So, he brought me a cane flyrod from Japan. I can well remember receiving it. It was in a balsam wood box with felt lined mounts in the box. It also had a collection of flies in a small compartment at one end of the box. Fortunately, it had two tips because I quickly broke the first tip in a willow tree. I used this rod for many years with the same flies that came with the kit. That was the beginning of my love for fly fishing and it has never deminished. I often think about this beginning because I now have many rods, but none that I enjoy more than that first one.
Thank you for sharing all your stories. It is cool to see who really remembers. Don’t forget, that just because you dont have that fly or that fly rod anymore hanging in your garage. It can still be “with you”. My first fly is might be in a Altoids can on my work bench in the garage and who knows where it will be in ten or 15 years. The rod might break, get lost, dropped into the deep abyss, its anyone’s guess. The memories created with the rod and fly will never leave me.
My Dad bought me my first one also…in the 40’s…and I still have it…it’s a south Bend bamboo with and extra tip and still have the original sock and cardboard tube.
MM, my story is that Dad decided I should have the opportunity to learn to fly fish though he knew nothing about it…nor did I…well, in that small town in Iowa we fished the local sand pit or the creek…I headed for the sand pit and put on a hook and worm and a pear shaped lead sinker …I had no idea about casting a fly line but did know the stroke was different…
After flinging that setup somehow and getting hit in the back of the head with that sinker about three times I decided the old way was the best.
I’ve kept that rod over the years during many locations but you know I realize now I never have lined it and tried casting…I believe it is time but it almost seems sacrilegious…Thanks, George, I’m going to do it…wonder what size it is:???:.
Nice posts and stories everyone, thank you. Well it occured to me when i read Dblackman’s post over in the other thread that i keep saying i’ll line my
old blue fibreglass rod one of these days and Tuesday will be the day once i return to its location.
Geez ducksterman, shoot me a pm maybe and remind me where you are and
i’m thinking we should line the ‘old ones’ at the same place?
My first rod was a whippy old fiberglass Eagle Claw. It’s hanging over the entryway to our dining room now where it serves as a reminder and provides perspective on a daily basis. I found out recently the first fly I ever tied as a kid is still in the upper left hand corner of Dad’s flybox and has been all these years.
Daiwa Algonquin(sp) 9’5" 5 wt with an Okuma Carina reel and a cortland fairplay line… heavy, long, whippy,
It was my first…given to my brother as his first, given to his oldest son as his first…headed for his younger borther as his first.
Heck! It’s not a flyrod…it’s a communicable genetic, disease:mrgreen:
Mine is here beside me in my office. I had it out lawn casting last week. It is a Kunnan 6-7 wgt. 8foot graphite/fibregalass and is about 25 years old. A friend of mine by the name of D** Tu**** had a bait and tackle shop here in Stirling Ontario, and almost forced me into buying the rod. D** sold it to me after watching me drool on it for about a month and made me buy it at about 20% of the price, I told him no thank you I really could not afford it. D** insisted that I take it and reassured me that it will be the rod of a lifetime for me and I would learn to cheerish it. D** was right, I still have it and I still take it out and cast it for him. I have to cast it for him since D** died shortly (within a day or two) after smiling at me and saying you will enjoy this and handed me my first fly rod.
My father was one of the well known flyfishers in Western Massachusets so I never had a chance to worm fish. Had a closet full of Bamboo that he tested back in the 30’s, tied alll of our flies without a vise. Then went thru even hollow steel fly rods,glass and finally as my dad would say PLASTIC. Still have my bamboo gift rod at the age of 15 from Bill Edwards a Quad. These days I have 15 new rods in the garage for our club youth class and another 10 or so older models. BILL:tieone::tieone:
Mine was a rod of questionable wt age and length my step-dad Fred gave me on a visit to Oregon in the early sixties. As I recall, it got broken up pretty bad in the back of an IH Scout that took a tumble off a dirt road near Ruidoso NM a few years later. Then a used steel Western Auto outfit bought at a pawn shop. My next was a Cortland outfit purchased from Gibson’s for around $30.00. That one went to my son who lost it in the divorce.
My first Real fly rod was a Orvis Far & Fine I will never sell it, perfect action, next to my 8-6 4wt Z Axis it has a little more punch. Now you know how many rods I have.
A fiberglass blank I ‘assembled’ myself in 1971 - buggy whip is too kind-loads down to my left big toe, unloads at a snail’s pace (timed with a calendar) but it got me started and I loved it untill I went to Art Neuman’s shop on Sheridan Road in ‘72 and picked up a lovely 7’ 5 weight (what a jewel - yes, I still have it and use it). I occasionally take out my first just for fun and memories. Thanks for the thread.
mcsteff
A hand me down from Grandpa…H&I glass, 6 weight 8 footer complete with South Bend Oren-O-Matic reel. It needs a wrap job and some new ferrules and it’s ready to hit the water again. The only thing missing is the level line…I’ve still got my first “trout” slimed fly, too!
My first was a 9’ H&I horror, black with gawdy red wrap’s over gold foil, ferrules that didn’t quite fit. I got it because I’d read about fly fishing in Jason Lucas “Lucas on Bass Fishing.”
I got the rod at an Army-Navy store along with a line, an auto reel and some humongous bass bugs. I couldn’t cast it worth a dern and the reel broke the first day I used it. I gave up fly fishing as a bad job and didn’t touch a fly rod again for at least 5 years.
I still have the old horror and, before I stripped the guides off for another rod, I cast it. Apparently sitting in a closet for a quarter century improves a rod’s action. Even so, I have no plan to refurnish it with guides and use it.
