tjm

I have probably two dozen reels, so let some one else play with that one, or keep it as a paper weight slash conversation piece. Line guards were not so much to protect the lines as to prevent lines from grooving the reel frames. Braided silk lines with soft varnish coatings were bad to pick up and hold grit, so that they became very like a saw after some use and the metals used for frames were relatively soft, so, hardened metal rings or more commonly, perhaps, agate insert rings were installed to keep the line from cutting into the frames. Two dozen reels?? I started trying to find a part for a Medalist several years ago and found that they were no longer available and that led to looking on eBay for a salvage reel, where I discovered that on occasion the whole working reel could be purchased for less than any of the parts and my attempts to buy a parts donor reel and getting a fully usable reel lead me to buying another and another as they came up at low cost, I never did get a junk Medalist. With one of those buys as a lot, I got a Pflueger Sal Trout and found that I liked it almost as much as the Medalist, and as they were often very cheap at the time I acquired several over time. Sal Trout 1554 is a large arbor spring and pawl skeleton reel that was a popular lower cost reel from the '20s through the '70s so there are lots of them out there. And having found that I like them it's hard to pass one up if the cost is low enough. Very light weight and ambidextrous with moderate capacity, actually for the little fishing I do these days all the reel I need. And I have more of them now than I have need for. She will probably have to give my rods and reels away,, rather than have a sale, not many are wanting "antique" tackle. And I can't recall the last time I saw another flyrodder on the local creeks, so not much demand for fly tackle locally either.

I don't think many anglers ever used LHW reels until the post war proliferation of the new spinning reels and nylon lines. The reels produced prior to ~1950 are predominately RHW unless custom ordered, with some being ambidextrous by accident, like the caliper click reels that have no real bias to the direction of check, by the mid '50s the spinning reels had converted a lot of anglers to LHW, but it still took until 1959 for Pflueger to make a conversion adapter for the popular Medalists, and until '63 for them to make the Medalists convertible from the factory with no extra parts required. Even then, as far as I know they were always delivered set up RHW. It doesn't bother me much either way, I can wind with either hand or wind backwards if needed. And having learned with a #33 spincast all those years ago I can swap hands on the rod with dropping it. Looking at the "Silent Drag", it doesn't appear to have much if any directional bias, so the reel could probably be used "backwards" if one just ignored the line guard.

Oh, I had fun tracking that thing down, it's too hot outside to do anything else, i was kinda hoping it'd be a collector item that would fiance another old tackle purchase. btw, I think from the little I know of cane rods that the Shakespeare rod dates from about the same period, so, it'd not surprise me if they were bought together.

Reel is not as unique as I thought nor quite as old as I thought; Ocean City Sturdibilt "Wanita" #305 (apparently Sturdibuilt was an Ocean City predecessor) and I think the "Silent Drag" in your reel dates it to 1946-48 per one source, going by changes stated in catalogs but without pictures. The chromium plated round line guard is consistent with the "Deluxe" version. I think I've seen that reel in images before but having a different drag/check. And now I have seen something "new" And in the search I came across this quote that kinda fits me- "I never met a fly rod that I didn't like"

I suspect you're right, I'm not sure that I've fished all of my rods in the past two years combined. And I only have a couple dozen rods. I'm sure I have more old reels than I have rods, but the reels are mostly either Medalists or Sal Trouts. I often open up a tube and think "wow, I haven't seen that rod in a while." And truthfully I'm not a collector, I just like old 'glass fly rods and there were so many good ones made that I want to try. When I load up for a fishing outing I randomly choose 5-6 tubes to haul and at the location randomly chose a rod from the ones I brought, but I might change rods a time or three through the day.

Yes that makes the manufacturer Ocean City. I've never seen that particular kind of drag/brake/?? before in person or in images on the net. If I were a collector, I'd want that reel just for it's unusualness. Now my curiosity will have me searching images of early OC reels for that kind of "drag" because all it does is drag, very lightly I'd guess. I want to know what they called it.

406 Fly Lines has SA build true to weight lines in small diameter, with their coatings, that he designed for older 'glass rods with small guides, that should work fine on the bamboo as well, since the early glass were designed specifically to imitate bamboo. The main thing Sylk claims is the small diameter. Both are also available in DT. I think from stuff I've read that either of those lines would also work well on any modern rod. The reel has a pre war look with that round line guard. Surprised it has no check. Are there parts missing or it just never had?

Contrast/compliment to water color or bottom, purple works better at night in my creek. And I've had times when Chartreuse would not get a bump, but a dull yellow would, it's shades and contrast in the conditions present, or not ...You've fished more in the past month than I have in the past year so you're probably right.

I hadn't tried but just did.

If it even suggests something natural it will work. Follow the proportions that tyers figured out two hundred years ago for wets/nymphs and those figured out a hundred years ago for dries and make all the streamers have Cardinal Minnow or chub or sculpin shape with some wiggle. Provide contrast were natural things have contrast like olive back over cream belly for a streamer with perhaps a lateral line. Ribbing on most flies is there to simulate segmentation, so it should have some contrast. Buried in the dubbing it doesn't add much to the fly. So much has to do with silhouette/profile, but it's important to remember that most of what trout eat is 1/2" long and gray/brown. Often skinny too. I also think that within reason shades of color matter more than hue in subsurface presentation, and that neither maters greatly if the fly is above the film. I've done a lot of casual experimentation in trying to find what flies won't work over the years, and my stand out as "the fly that just won't catch a fish" is the yarn egg/fuzz ball/glow ball; yet thousands of trout are hooked them daily. But I never could catch a trout on corn either. I'm pretty sure that hot spots are for the angler's eye as much as for the fish, just think of all the fish caught before hot spots were invented.

Heat gun to soften the epoxy, Popcicle sticks and or plastic picnic knives (use the back edge) to use as scrapers and denatured alcohol as final clean up. Old gift cards might work as scraper. Back side of butter knife might work. I'd be careful with steel implements that have sharp corners even on the blunt edge though, so no utility blades etc. Not too much heat either, pass the heat source over an area and rub with stick, if it isn't soft heat a bit more.

New pattern names always intrigue me, I am compelled to look them out, although most of my flies aren't really patterns, they just happen. I've tied similar to the above lots of times but with no bead and no collar and what ever yarn or dubbing is at hand with what ever soft hackle is at hand. With or without tails. One thing I always do though is to counter wrap any ribbing, unlike many of the video tyers who wrap the rib in the same direction as the dubbing, so that it has more of a tendency to bury itself. Typically I prefer a corded thread rib to a flat/floss rib, I think the third dimension makes the rib more visible, same reason I prefer wire to tinsel for rib.

A little different take with no shellback- https://flytotie.com/flies/nymphs/hot-ribbed-hares-ear/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKg2nm2eE5A Hot Ribbed Hare's Ear Recipe: Hook: #12 Hanak 400BL Bead: 3.5mm Gold Slotted Tungsten Thread: 70 Denier Red Ultra Thread Tail: Medium Pardo CDL Rib: Fl Orange Glo Brite Floss Body: Hare's Ear Dubbing Hackle: Natural Dun CDC Collar: Peacock Ice Dub

Sorry it looks like I derailed the thread. So, now that I know it's still reasonably easy to put the sinker on by retying the hook, can any of you guys help @trouty mouth put the sinker on without cutting the hook off? I can see passing the folded line through sinker and then passing the hook through the loop that makes, the sinker would then be manually adjustable for space but kinked in place unless deliberately moved. Might stress the line at the pinch points too. I've actually done something like that with a bell sinker.

I typically fish most of my 'glass rods with a line weight lighter than they were marked, but then as now the line ratings were just someone's opinion; there never has been an objective way to measure a rod's rating, all rods can handle multiple line weights, a every ~5; of line out the tip is another weight. As an example from ca 1965 my 6'6" 6wt is just as happy with a #4 as with a #6 although I usually use it with #5, and it will cast a #7 or #8 out to normal fishing distance. On the other hand I tend to overline the graphite rods and fished my #5 Orvis for years with a #7 Wulff TT line. What works best for the user is the correct line.

At that rate you'll have a hundred species by the weekend.

I thought the reel seat had a Fenwick look as well as the rod color, but to the best of my knowledge they only sold 2 & 4 piece in 7' rods. They did sell a lot of one piece blanks that builders cut and ferruled to suit themselves. As did most manufacturers back when the rods were all rolled as one piece. But all the Fenwick one piece blanks that I've seen were yellow. The superfine grip shape is reminiscent of many Phillipson rods, but I think he used a hosel on all those type grips. The brown blank is also close in color to Herter's rods which were made by multiple manufacturers. I imagine that with no markings on the rod it is safe to assume it a very well done custom build/kit rod. No winding check or hosel also points away from factory build, I think. I also imagine that when new it was listed as a five weight.

Thanks, @Flysmallie I wondered if the modern casting lines were especially hard to tie or what would make it worth while to try this, I think the last time I used a slip sinker was ca 1985 and with nylon mono it was simple to change the way I was rigged.

So, as a fly flinger, I'm puzzled. How hard is it to cut off and retie the hook with the sinker in place?

Pretty common here, even back in the '50s, but with only the rocks as size reference I would never have guessed that was a kitten.

Bluegill are divided into subspecies now too? Is there a list showing dates and reasons for changes in taxonomy, or do the experts just come up with new species on a whim?

yeah but when I was there they were not "redband"

when were "redband" trout invented? I never heard of them until recently.