Now I know with this archive, we’ve mainly focused on vintage optics and the OZKP test rifle, but the primary purpose of this blog is to properly test and document vintage outdoor gear so that it isn’t lost to the sands of time and so we can understand how things came to be today (I think this is a slight oversimplification but it works enough for this article). With that being said, this archive is not exclusive to scopes and rusty old guns, so brace yourself for a story about a crusty old fly rod.
When I was in high school and only a few short years into my fly fishing journey, I coveted a Redington Butterstick, but being that I was in high school, I never had the money for one and even if I did, I couldn’t justify the $250.00+ for singular fly rod. Regardless, one summer when traveling to our lake house on Greers Ferry Lake, my dad and I stopped into a quasi junk-store on the way to the lake house. Now this wasn’t any old junk store, this was Ed Lauderdale’s. Essentially, a giant garage sale operating normal business hours, filled with various hunting and fishing equipment strewn about in garage sale fashion. It was like all the stuff you’d hope to find when you go to a regular garage sale, but never do.
I don’t recall why we stopped in here, but I began to pick through the fly rods, and there it was in all its glory, a bright yellow 8ft fiberglass rod, just like the Redington Butterstick.
”How much for this old rod?” I asked.
”$40 and it’s yours.” Mr. Ed told me.
Sold! To be honest, I’m not even certain today if it was $40, but I know it was more than $20 and less than $50. It didn’t really matter to me, my poor father ended up footing the bill. Being a typical high schooler, I had no cash on me.
When we arrived at the lake house, I promptly took my reel and line from my other rod and set up my new fiberglass beauty. I took it out to the grassy patch in the back yard and began to cast; every single loop collapsed.
“huh, something isn’t right” I thought.
I had never casted a glass rod before, and me being pretty much the only fly fisherman I knew, I broke down the two piece rod and stashed it into the corner of my small room in the cabin, where it sat for nearly 5 years. With the lake house long sold, the rod followed me to Northwest Arkansas, and it has sat in my rod rack here. I have walked past it nearly every day for the last three years. I don’t know if it’s guilt for wasting dad’s $40 or if all those years of reading The Fiberglass Manifesto have finally caught up to me, but this past month I’ve finally grown tired of seeing a nice rod covered in idle dust. With a reel of similar vintage already acquired and new fly line in the mail, I’m very excited to share the coming videos and articles this setup will inspire.
- Hayes