What really happens in the mind of an individual when they start fishing, and collecting, and I don't mean just fly fishing, I think this all starts

to happen really young in life, I was brought up in the junk mans way of thinking, now I don't mean this as bad, I mean this

was great for a young boy to be raised like I was, I was taken to many different arenas of life, junk stores, flea markets, auctions

just about any kind of place that had used junk, my parents were always going to places like this and so I was taken along for the ride.

I learned so much and didn't even know I was learning things that would change my life when I was older, I got to where I could talk to just

about anybody, wasn't to bashful, you couldn't be when you were trying to barter on a fishing reel or fishing pole, if you could just get the

person to take a 1$ for the reel instead of 1.50 $ then I could save that .50 for something better down the road. Now my dad can talk people

down on the price of an item, but my mom is 100 times better than him, and that is saying a lot.

But I remember buying a stack of old outdoor magazines when I was about 11 and thinking I had hit the jackpot, the reading in those old

magazines was like going off into a new world every time I would read about the cape buffalo hunting, the fishing in far away places, at that

time places like colorado, wyoming and other western states were nothing but dreams for me.

I read and reread those old mags and still have them to this day, I will never part with them, like an old good feeling pair of jeans, I won't

get rid of them, someday I'll be reading one of those old mags and it will just go up in a poof of dust and be one with the universe again, but

until then I'll keep reading.

When I was just a young man I owned several rod s and reels, mostly old zebcos, and old fiberglass rods, but they were my prized possesions at

the time, I cared for them like I do my high dollar rods today.

As I got older, I was working more and had a bit more money, I remember mowing yards all one summer so I could afford to buy this 4 1/2 foot

HMG Fenwick spinning rod, I had looked at this rod for over a year, and I still remember the day I got that rod, and I went to Roaring River the next day

and caught so many trout on that little spinning rod, that may have been one of the turning points in my young life, because, I think from that day

forward, I lived to buy the nicest rods I could afford, and then came fly fishing.

I remember my first fly rod, it was an old eagle claw, bright yellow and all of 6' feet long, I guess here is where my obsessions with small rods started.

I can remember going into the fly shop at the bottom of the Roaring River hill(now where the Devils Kitchen trail starts) and with my 5$ I could get 4

wooly worms, and leader or tippet, a soda and still have a few dollars left over, the owner of the shop, Gary Box was a big help, he always

seemed to be willing to help and I was willing to listen and learn.

I enjoyed fishing the park, it was where I could go and spend the day, when I was all of 12 years of age, you could spend the whole day at the park

and fish and enjoy and you were wore out from fishing when your parents came down to pick you up after the got off work.

I don't really remember catching that many trout, I know from time to time I would catch a mess and we would cook them when I got home, but

even then I didn't really like eating them or cleaning them, so I was catching and releasing most of the time.

Well from that old eagle claw fly rod, I graduated to a 7' Fenglass fly rod, and I was ruined, that rod was really nice and light, I belive it was a 5wt

but it was so much lighter than my eagle claw, and I do remember that rod fondly, I lost that rod in a fire in the upstairs of the lodge at Roaring River, but

I have since replaced it with a like rod.

Everyday I look at forums, auctions, vintage tackle sites, I'm not sure why I do this, I started out collecting old lures and stuff when younger and then

while working for Mr. Nickols at Roaring river for 13 years, I acquired many, many, many fly rods and reels, I got into collecting the Ari-T-Hart reels for

awhile, until I had over 40 of them, I have since whittled that # back down to only 15 ATH reels, I had to sell some of them to buy other reels.

I have since those early days at Roaring River acquired many many rods and reels and other fly fishing paraphernalia, I have lots of neat nets, boxes,

chest fly boxes, old bamboo has just about ruined me, I have bought so much bamboo in the past few years, I think I may have a little problem, I

figure I have about a rod a month habit right now, sometimes it is a rod a week, since I started collecting old vintage glass rods, as I'm sitting here

typing this my phone dings and another auction ends and I have yet another nice rod to add to the pile, and old Herter's 5pc glass rod, made by

Phillipson, I'll fish it a few times and set it with its brothers in one of the safes I have purchased just to keep the rods in, not worried about them

being stolen and many are worth very little, more worried about fire, and my dogs chewing on them.

I would like to know if this habit get better with age or gets worse, I guess if I live long enough I'll find out, but for now I just keep on buying and trying

to buy rods and reels of my youth, I'll buy a rod now just because I wanted it when I was young and couldn't afford it and now, it is still kind of expensive,

but I keep telling myself that I really should buy it and see what I missed out on when I was young.

I am writing this because I was going to sell a few rods to make way for a few bamboos I have on order, or that I may acquire in the next few months,

as I sat and counted rods, after I got up to 160 I quit counting because out of the 160, I could only find one or two that I really wanted to sell, and that

really isn't worth the bother to just sell two rods, so I packed them all back in the safes and closed the doors and started looking on line to see if I could

find a deal on another safe, after all it might be easier to just buy one more safe than try to start selling off my rods.

Tim's Fly Shop

Tim Homesley