Fishing Stuff, dang I'm Retro.

[Art]

I was just cleaning up my rods and reels. I can't fish as much as I used to, in fact its pretty infrequent and mostly done with the grandson. I wouldn't even attempt fly fishing now so my Orvis Performer and all my fly fishing gear went to my surgeon who's a big fly fisherman.

The other stuff:

Bait casting set ups: I have a Penn 109 on a 6 1/2 foot hollow glass rod. I bought it new about 1975 and have caught bunches of fish, mostly salt water on it. The last time I took it out was about 4 years ago on a trip with our daughter and her family. Didn't catch much but it was a good day anyhow. My current go to reels are all Ambassadors, and all Swedish made. The oldest is a 4500 that was found on a beach by a friend restored and given to me. It doesn't have a drag but does have a brake. I use it mostly for catfish, in fact I used it for that purpose a few weeks ago. The rod, considering its purpose it sits on a a 5 1/2 foot ugly stick. My general purpose fresh water reel is also a 4500 this time with a star drag. The rod is a custom hollow glass 5' rod made for me by a friend. My basic salt water rod for the past 20-25 years is an Ambassador 5500 on a Castaway Pro Sport 7' graphite rod. I used to have 2, since I always took a backup saltwater fishing but I gave the other one to a friend who had helped me out in a big way after I got sick. I also have an Ambassador 6000C on an All American 7' graphite rod. I got it cheap in a pawn shop but it turned out not to be quite that cheap because I had to have the drag repaired. I've had it for about 3 years and only used it one time, hopefully that will change.

Spinning Reels: My salt water spinning reel is a Penn 450ssg on a 7' Falcon graphite rod. Like the go to bait casting salt water reels its done sterling service for me over about 20 years. Now for a real blast from the past I picked up a Mitchell 300 in fine shape at a pawn shop many years ago. and it sits on an Abu Garcia 6 1/2' Black Max graphite rod. It's mostly my loaner set up. I'd have given my eye teeth and a pinky finger to have owned one of those when I was a kid.

What do you other fishermen use????

[lyman]

I would have to go make a list, since I rarely fish any more,

maybe 12 or so rods hanging on the wall in the garage,
2 or 3 fly rods,
3 or 4 baitcasters,

rest are spinners,

from 5 foot to 9 foot rods,

[dryheat]

I have two fishing poles of some sort and a couple of reals too. I also have a fly fishing set up. I half ***** tried fly fishing and caught some arctic grayling with it long ago. I can still recall pretty vividly my best catches.

[lyman]

re the fly fishing ,

I suck at it,


was learning from an old guy that I used to fish a lot with,
but since life changes, (job) and he passed, I am terribly rusty,


true story,

Jack was a retired telephone guy, knew every fishing hole in the greater Richmond Metro area, so we fished a lot of them,

he taught me to fly fish, ( I was in my 20's, Dad never fished) and I was OK,

we fly fished for Crappies, , sunfish etc, never trout, (not in this area)

so black ants worked great, pulled some nice fish in,
so I decided to hit the local Orvis shop to get some,
since Orvis was the go to fly fish folks,

tiny shop in the trendy old part of town,

walked in, looked around, and a gent dressed way too good for a fishing shop stopped to ask me what I needed,
we discussed ants, black, red, sizes etc, and he asked me what streams I was fishing,

I told him Swift Creek Reservoir,, and Pocahontas State Park, and whatever pond I was near, and for Crappie and sunfish,


dude looked at me, turned and walked away,

so I left, ordered some out of a magazine (no internet then) and found a few in a few local shops,


never bothered to set foot in an Orvis since

[bruce]

Still have the first fly rod I ever bought ... fiberglass Eagle Claw from about 1977. I vividly remember the first bass I ever caught on it. Used a little orange popper. Great lure. Few years later, was using it on a canal in New Orleans, LA. Caught myself a big sea gull. Lots of fun. When my identical-twin brother died (2004), I was given his fly rod ... brand new in the tube ... graphite from some hot shot rod company. Have never used it. Very little way to go in this area as it is simply to urbanized. Next year will be 20 years since he passed away. Really need to get that rod and go fishing. Sincerely. bruce.

[Doc Sharptail]

Never tried fly fishing- I can't quite make sense out of the pricing.

Been told Grand-Dad tied his own mayflies, and was quite proficient with them on Walleye on Lake of the Woods. I suspect he may have been a bit of a muskie man, but have little proof.

There's a few around here that try on flies for carp and cats on the local urban streams.

Myself has little experience with the classic gear mentioned above. We lost a big Penn reel out of the boat that was never replaced. I had a pflueger Trump bait caster when I was a kid that I wore out, as well as a Shakespeare direct drive. The brass bodies and parts did wear out.

Someone gave me an all aluminum really beaten mitchell spin reel this summer. Seems to work o.k. after replacing the missing drag plate washer. I'll find out in may.

Favorite gear is light weight class wall-eye stuff. Usually like the current modern smaller pflueger president spin reels, which give roughly five years service.
8-10 lb braid is the line of choice.... I think there's 8-10 rod and reel sets here with 4 being still fishing set-ups that are a bit on the heavy side for the big channel cats that are often encountered around here.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Allen]

I had a nice fly rod/reel set up and practiced a lot in the yard casting the line. I even got into making my own lures. Before I could find a suitable spot to fish our dog chewed up the fiberglass pole. I lost interest after that.

[lyman]

Never tried fly fishing- I can't quite make sense out of the pricing.

Been told Grand-Dad tied his own mayflies, and was quite proficient with them on Walleye on Lake of the Woods. I suspect he may have been a bit of a muskie man, but have little proof.

There's a few around here that try on flies for carp and cats on the local urban streams.

Myself has little experience with the classic gear mentioned above. We lost a big Penn reel out of the boat that was never replaced. I had a pflueger Trump bait caster when I was a kid that I wore out, as well as a Shakespeare direct drive. The brass bodies and parts did wear out.

Someone gave me an all aluminum really beaten mitchell spin reel this summer. Seems to work o.k. after replacing the missing drag plate washer. I'll find out in may.

Favorite gear is light weight class wall-eye stuff. Usually like the current modern smaller pflueger president spin reels, which give roughly five years service.
8-10 lb braid is the line of choice.... I think there's 8-10 rod and reel sets here with 4 being still fishing set-ups that are a bit on the heavy side for the big channel cats that are often encountered around here.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

many moons ago i fished at least once a week, as in most of the day,

decided to attempt to master the bait caster reels, and bought a few at a local pawn shop, and eventually splurged on a brand new Diawa rod and reel,

had it a month, was fishing a honey hole with my old friend and we were catching crappy left and right,
one case, the hook caught part of the new diawa I had laying behind me in the jon boat and pulled it right up and out,

dropped in about 15 foot of water,, in Feb, so i went swimming for it, but never found it,

when I came up after the 2nd attempt, my lips and nose were blue so I got back in the boat to warm up, (I had taken my shirt and coat off, )

[Doc Sharptail]

many moons ago i fished at least once a week, as in most of the day,

decided to attempt to master the bait caster reels, and bought a few at a local pawn shop, and eventually splurged on a brand new Diawa rod and reel,

had it a month, was fishing a honey hole with my old friend and we were catching crappy left and right,
one case, the hook caught part of the new diawa I had laying behind me in the jon boat and pulled it right up and out,

dropped in about 15 foot of water,, in Feb, so i went swimming for it, but never found it,

when I came up after the 2nd attempt, my lips and nose were blue so I got back in the boat to warm up, (I had taken my shirt and coat off, )

We were in pike water, and catching when that Penn reel went over the side. Trolling in a 16ft canoe with a big chrome redeye tied to the Penn reel and rod.
Either it was a pike, or a reed that pulled it into the water. Never did find it, and that ain't for lack of trying, and yes, we even swam for it. That reel was +60.00 in the early 70's, and represented quite a hefty chunk of change. I'm of the opinion a pike pulled it in- the rig was a bit heavy for a weed or lily pad to pull it out of the boat.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Allen]

I was salt water fishing one day in Mobile Bay with my Father and uncle. My uncle had a HD salt rig--the rod measured about 1/2" dia at the tip. The hook was about 6"-8" long with a whole fish on it. It was placed in one of the rod holders while the boat trolled along. Something took the bait, broke the line/leader and the rod rattled back and forth for a few seconds. You could see a stream of bubbles going away like a torpedo would make.

The rod was saved due to the rod holder. We never knew what hit it. Everyones guess was a large shark or something else we wouldn't have wanted in the boat in the first place. Could have been a sub even.

Salt water fishing is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.

[dryheat]

They drained our lake a few years (decades) back to work on the dam. We found a half dozen anchors wrapped around one tree. A couple dozen rods and six sunken boats. One had burned to the water line. One had a big hole in the bow where it hit the rock it sank next to. There was one jet boat but all the jet stuff was gone in a couple of days.

[RED]

Back in the late 70s or early 80s, Browning came out with a Boron casting rod. It was high dollars ($100+) and a friend bought one with a expensive Ambassador reel. Somehow he dropped it out of his boat
in 25 feet of water on Lake Kinkaid in Southern IL. A couple of weeks later, I was by myself on the 2,750 acre lake and jigging a Little Leo spoon when I snagged what I thought was a piece of wood. Nope, it was a Browning Boron rod and Ambassador reel.

Back then I was a pretty good fisherman but that is still my most memorable catch!

IMG_1344_Original.jpg

[JohnMOhio]

A good buddy and I often went deer hunting and when he purchased a 21 foot boat for fishing on Lake Erie I went with him a couple of times. I have to remember the first time I went as it was one of those days to remember. Andy turned on his electronic equipment and the GPS co ordinates and off we went. After about a 45 minutes we arrived at the spot Andy raved about. Told me he always had his limit of large Walleye at this location and we should do good. My being a shore fisherman this was going to be a treat for me. After about 2.5 hours of fishing and no bites I felt that we were teaching those worms we had on our hooks how to swim. Finally Andy says to me, John I don't understand why we are not catching anything. After 15 second or so pause he says to me, I know another good spot we can go to but it's not as good as this one.

[lyman]

didn't Browning buy the rights to Lews Speed Spools?

picked up a Lews in a pawn shop cheap, with a decent rod,

I can cast a bait caster, but not accurately or with any distance,