The 15 dollar fly outfit (the three weight chronicles)

[BilletHead]

           Another old rod and reel?  Yes, another one. This time a little one.  So again, the BilletHead's were out and about three weeks ago. seen a garage sale sign oh yea got to check it out. Most everything was overpriced.  Pat pointed to the pile of cast iron cookware.  Newer stuff but the guy proceeded to tell me of the treasures inside and how much he paid for it. It was then I decided I wasn't going to find anything here. As I was exiting the garage, I see two fly rods and reels with price tags. Both sets were covered with dust, heavy dust like they had been in an open shed where dirt had been blown on them for years. I did not even look at the bamboo rod thinking he would be pretty proud about it. Picked up the short one. I rubbed the dust off and no marks on the rod. A wipe of the reel showed it was a Heddon 300. I tried to turn the spool. Locked up. Looked closer and the aluminum spool was corroded to the reel and inside the same around the fly line that had caused it all. Yuk. I was most interested in the rod. He had 25 bucks on the outfit. I asked him if he would take less. Let me see it he said. He exclaimed the reel is shot bit rod looked ok. What would you give. I said if you want me to leave with something 15 is what I will pay. Give me the money he said and I did. When at home I washed the rod and gave it a good waxing. It shined.  If anyone knows the maker Let me know please.  It is a 7 footer.      I did not even tackle the reel.  I took out a 3wt and 4wt reels. Tried them out and both worked but I favored the 3wt. Then I took apart the reel after getting the rotten line off of it. The spool was terrible. I had no idea what to do but knew something abrasive was needed. If it was salvageable, I did not want to scratch it up so grabbed some 0000-steel wool. It took two pads working hard to clean it up, but it did. Works like new now. Right- or left-hand retrieve. I don't like the annoying clicker. It's there as original. I will leave it that way and I have gotten used to it. Someone next to me might not but too bad :). It got some new mid-grade 3wt Rio weight forward line. Fun to cast. 

     

         Ok here is the plan for this combo. CATCH FISH!  What kind? Everything I can big and small I like them all. I will add there are stipulations. it will be fly only for these different species. I am going to join my friends who do this but with a twist. Only on this rod no slip on a piece of worm either. Out of my three buddies who on here that do this in earnest one does rod and reel bait or no bait only, one does both fly rod and conventional gear but tracks separately and one fly rod only but assume multiple rod and reel outfits. If not @FishnDave correct me please.  I am up to 12 species at the moment. Fishing reports will follow. This rod will now be with me when I am out for anything and if opportunity arises it will come out. No fish is too small or two big I will try it. If things get dicey there might be broken tippets. We will deal with it as it comes.  I am not going to make a time limit on this. If rod reel survives it might be until I am no longer able to go. I am ate up with this outfit. 

[kjackson]

Does this have a metal ferule or is it tip-over-but glass? Curious minds want to know... the blank makes me think Fenwick color.

[BilletHead]

4 minutes ago, kjackson said:

Does this have a metal ferule or is it tip-over-but glass? Curious minds want to know... the blank makes me think Fenwick color.

           One piece my friend! I thought about that too because I have seen Fenwick rods colored like that, but I really don't know. I can feel the flex in the handle when casting. 

[BilletHead]

      First trip fishing. 

  There is a creek on a conservation area with easy access I wanted to try. I have caught a variety of fish there in the past both wading and kayak. Surely, I could catch something there. This is the place where I posted about an otter encounter. Put on my hip boots and sling pack. Stream was slow and other than across bottlenecks or pinch points where water had some flow everything covered with silt from last rain stream rise event. Clarity wasn't very good either. I tied on a foam hopper and got some fish. Lots of misses I know that were minnows or small longear. Green sunfish were nuts over the hopper.   Then largemouth     Switched to a small dark bugger. Smallmouth and spotted bass followed. 

  Bluegill after that and a Bluegill X Longear after that.    Lots and lots of pesky longear. I was happy with a few but soon that got annoying, real annoying when targeting other fish, I could see in shallow areas. 

  A chub and missed a couple others.    

          Next trip to the irrigation pond where I catch channel cat on the fly rod. I tied on a bead chain clouser. Small one 2 1/4 inches long orange over chartreuse. Also casted a lightly dressed white with pearl lateral line. The channel cat were active. Caught three. More pumping down of the lake. betting not much over four to five feet deep. That green algae bloom was and wind had it blown to my side. Scored on a few crappie too. 

This gives me 10 species so far.   

 

 

 

 

[FishnDave]

55 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

Out of my three buddies who on here that do this in earnest one does rod and reel bait or no bait only, one does both fly rod and conventional gear but tracks separately and one fly rod only but assume multiple rod and reel outfits. If not @FishnDave correct me please.  

@BilletHead I own 5wt-9wt rods.  The 5's haven't seen use in years.  The 6's generally get the bulk of my work, but in the past couple years, 7's and 8's and even 9's have gotten a fair amount of use for Bowfin, Gar, Drum, Carp, Grass Carp, Barramundi, and other larger freshwater fish.

[tjm]

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.

[FishnDave]

4 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

   This gives me 10 species so far.

Awesome!  Not bad for  just 51 minutes after your first post!  

[BilletHead]

1 minute ago, FishnDave said:

@BilletHead I own 5wt-9wt rods.  The 5's haven't seen use in years.  The 6's generally get the bulk of my work, but in the past couple years, 7's and 8's and even 9's have gotten a fair amount of use for Bowfin, Gar, Drum, Carp, Grass Carp, Barramundi, and other larger freshwater fish.

             Thanks Dave. I knew you were set up really well. Trout I use the 5 but will use this new one more now.  My general use rod is the 7 because it is nice for all around when you don't know what you might hook and able to do larger streamers. When specifically targeting hybrids the 7 for sure and the 8, and 9. 10 comes out for big fluffy streamers on windy days.

[tjm]

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

[BilletHead]

2 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

Awesome!  Not bad for  just 51 minutes after your first post!  

         Ha! I was banking a couple trips out for the first post. I even have another one to post. 😁