I bought this boo rod on ebay $52 buckaroos. I am just starting to get into bamboo and vintage fly fishing equipment. I have no clue on what weight, year, price or if it has original hardware. I’ll post a few pics of the reel seat, wraps and part of the cork handle. Thanks for the help, later.
congrats on winning the auction.
picked something up there myowndamnself the other day. 9’ is a fairly unusual length I’m thinking…
you’ll want to restore her most likely. you are in for some fun. looks like a fairly easily managed project.
welcome to the wonderful word of bamboo.
mgj
nice old rod for sure. I think that is the first model 159-9 that I have seen. SB mad hundreds of the model 59, and 359, but I don’t recall ever seeing a model 159. I would really be interested in the taper of that rod. I went to Banjo’s site and looked and he doesn’t refer to it in there either.
Congrats on winning it.
LD
I’m the farthest thing from an expert - but that reel seat doesn’t look as old as the rod - maybe somebody already started restoring it - it looks nice.
159-9 :?:
I agree with Leo. You’ve got an interesting model there. Have not seen a 159 either. Have a 59 and two 359s myself!
Hope Fishin Banjo himself reads this post and shares his knowledge on the stick.
Not that I know anything about this stuff,
but on my 359-9… it’s written in pencil
That reel seat looks like the Bakelite reel seat on my 359. Yours looks to be in really good shape.
REE
Neato! According to my Mr. Sinclair’s restoration handbook, what you have is there is of 1942 vintage. The 159 series was called there “trout” taper, whereas a 59 was a bass taper and a 359 was the dry fly taper. From his description, and the photos, most of that hardware looks vintage, though you might want to check about the wraps. Mike lists them as being black and white jasper, and those look like replacement orange and black. No sweat, you can get white and black jasper in both nylon and silk pretty easily these days (the only jasper thread you do not want to have to go looking for is yellow and black in silk, you will just have to take my word on that). The real seat looks a little funky, but it matches the description in Sinclairs book (he calls it a Lite Lock yellow/chrome), so I would venture that it is original. The garnix strippers clean up nice (got one on a 59-9 I just refinished) and shine great when dipped in spar varnish. Originally sold for $9.35, not their most expensive rod, but also not their cheapest (the beloved 290 sold for a whoppin $11 back then; ask dleo about them). The snake guides and tip-tops are tool-hardened steel, and the ferrules should be nickel silver, rolled welt serrated.
I’d say you got a keeper! Now spruce the old girl up, git yer hands on an old Pflueger 1494 or 1495, throw a refinished 6 or 7 wt DT silk line on it, skip the Mucilin treatment, tye on a wet fly, high tail it over to your favorite stream, AND LOVE IT!!! She deserves to be on the water again, and you probably still have time to get her refinished before the season opens! 8)
Whoops forgot a couple of other items. If you want to confirm any of this or get some additional info, try sending an email to this address: http://www.southbendcollector.com/. The fly rod questions get sent to an extremely nice man by the name of Rich Underwood, who is a SB and Heddon bamboo rod officionoto. Great guy, extremely helpful.
The 100 series were described as both a wet fly or trout taper. Here is a section from Sinclair’s book: “Usually, the models follow this format, with the 100-series being the lightest, or Trout Action, the 300-series being the medium-fast to fast Dry-Fly Action, and the two-digit number being the stiffest and fastest, or Bass Action. The 2-piece models use a 200 series number (#260 and #290) and are also Dry Fly Action.”
So plan on a nice slow action. Casting therapy man! 8) Don’t forget to bring the Scotch and cigars. Look up a few of Eric’s old flys on the site and have a grand old time!
pm me and I’ll send a half dozen pretty nice wet flies to sample her with.
mgj
Thank everyone for the info. And Mr. Blur for your offer (I took him up on his offer). I also went to the SB web site and asked the same questions. I’ll post it as soon as I receive a reply.
flyster - taking another look at those wraps, they look pretty old, and in pretty good shape. They may be original. Ask Rich at the south bend site if he can look up the wrap colors from back then. Send him more photos too.
Varnish does get yellow over time and what you have may be discolored.
Looks like you’ve got a very nice rod- and a trout taper too at that!!!