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Vintage Airstream Trailers, 54 Chevy Pickup, & Fly Fishing

Fly fishing is a holistically experience that puts you in the environment. It’s mountains in the background and the smell of an afternoon thunderstorm. It’s shooting stars overhanging a clear stream, and brook trout rising to mayflies. It’s seeing, once in a lifetime, an osprey take a cutthroat from the surface of an alpine lake. It’s experiencing a life cycle, and you are a predator. You hunt the fish. You pick the spot and place your fly with delicate grace causing it to drift like an insect. Occasionally the fish takes, you hook it, and you land it. In all this, it is easy to say thanks and watch the fish swim from your hand — a satisfying experience.

Our 54 Chevy was first purchased in Sidney Nebraska. It’s second and third owners lived in Brush Colorado, 80 miles. Loveland CO is 82 miles from Brush. The truck hasn’t gotten far in its life. We know it to have been in barns for the last thirty years. It is original except for the 1957 238 V8 installed early in its life and the paint job. We will maintain its originality, while upgrading it into a reliable driver that can tow our smaller Airstream.

Many years ago Wright-McGill stopped building fiberglass fly rods and sold their remaining inventory of rod blanks. I acquired several of the full-length blanks and built my first glass rod (9 weight) last year. Now I’m building a second and lighter weight (hoping for a # 5) and using tip over butt spigot ferrules. This blog is about building the second rod.

Fiberglass fly rods result from the technology developed during WWII and took over the market because of their economics compared to bamboo. All of the manufacturing technology used to build today’s carbon fiber rods was developed in the era of fiberglass. Still today some of the most pleasant casting rods are fiberglass, and their popularity is growing.

Dad gave me a Conolon HCH fly rod when I was 11. He said, “Do it like I do. Keep the rod between 11 and 1 o’clock, and hold a newspaper under your arm when you practice.” He added, “Twenty percent of the fisherman catch eighty percent of the fish.” I have been self-teaching and trying to reach the twenty percent ever since. I built my first fly rod seven years ago thinking I could get more rod for the money doing it myself. I continue to suffer the same motivation.

There is a Ford 8N restored tractor in the barn along with a 67 Airstream trailer and 54 Chevy pickup. Is there any surprise that I would build a fly rod from a vintage rod blank?

5-Harnell

Harnell’s name is not common among the fiberglass fly rod makers, but Harnell was selling hollow tube fiberglass rods a year or two after Conolon and Shakespeare. Harnell is perhaps less known because hits founder’s interest was bass and saltwater fishing. The Harnell 1955 catalog listed 75 rod models and said that the company

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4-Shakespeare, Conolon, and Sili-Flex

4-Shakespeare, Conolon, & Sili-Flex

Howald and Havens started the fiberglass fly rod industry. I will start with a description of their rods in the collection, and add Sili-Flex because it was an early offshoot of Haven’s Conolon.

This first rod is a Shakespeare Wonder Rod model 1250 made in January 1953 (FHK date code). It

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3-Fiberglass Components

3 – Fiberglass Components

Were you born after 1965? If so, your first fly rod was probably a graphite or your dad’s old fiberglass. You’ve been exposed to very little of the fiberglass world. Similar to the only foreign country you’ve seen is Mexico at Nogales during Spring break. Here I will show you the

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2-Fiberglass Technology

2 – Fiberglass Technology

The history of fiberglass fly rods is well covered in the Victor Johnson’s book*. For this post I will focus on the technology of modern fly rods. When making your next purchase, it will help all of us to understand how a rod is made and the variables involved. Before starting

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1-Fiberglass Collection

1 – Fiberglass Collection

Dad gave me a Garcia Conolin fiberglass fly rod with a old Pfluger reel in 1957. Of course it used a HCH line, and for leader I used monofiliment from my spinning reel. This didn’t change until the late 60’s, and I didn’t have a graphite rod until the early 80’s.

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5-Harnell

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3-Fiberglass Components

2-Fiberglass Technology

1-Fiberglass Collection

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