Vintage/ classic / " old school "fishing rods & reels

[Moke]

A few of my original patterns for saltwater fly fishing.

img9805:
mackerel pattern

img9806:
octopus-squid

img9807:
mackerel and generic streamer (mackerel-like streamer)

img9808:
octopus and squid variety

img9810:
Sandcrabs
These sandcrab fly patterns are for surf fishing for Corbina, a member of the Croaker family.
Corbina live at the cutting edge of waves rolling up onto shore. Breaking waves push up the beach, and push spawning sandcrabs up to the dry sand edge.  Corbina rush in, and feed on the Sandcrabs up and onto nearly dry sand. They then roll back down with the receding wave.  You fish for them with Sandcrab patterns in a fashion that is extremely close to flyfishing with fresh water nymphs.
The spawning Sandcrabs have a bright orange ball of eggs tucked tight up to the rear ends, and they drop them at the highwater mark, and then roll back with the waves.

img 5313 & 5314 is a Corbina caught on the Sandcrab fly pattern.
The rod:  Fenwick 8' 6wt. graphite stick, and my Pflueger Medalist fly reel. I use a 15' piece of lead core fishing line as my flyline, as I have to stick to the bottom in extremely turbulent conditions.

imgs 5310 & 5323:
36' 17lb Halibut caught from shore with the Mackerel pattern fly shown in the first image.
The rod and reel? 
The same Fenwick 8' #6wt and Pflueger Medalist reel as above with the Corbina.  It was a handful.

[Moke]

This is my "Ladybug" cane fly rod, a resto-mod.

40 years ago, I found this cane fly rod at a garage sale. I'd long wanted a cane rod, but this is all I could afford.
It was in in its original cardboard tube, that was seriously degraded, and falling apart.
It was a Montague 8' 6wt
It was in decent condition. But it weighed like a telephone pole, and had a similar flex to it; heavy and stiff.
So, it sat in my closet/garage for most of that 40 years.

Then, my wife had two hip replacement surgeries in as many months, and I became her full time attendant. 
I'd long thought that I'd like to take that heavy cane whip, and turn it into something smaller and lighter. My homestream is a small creek, and I typically fish it with an Orvis 6'6" One Ounce 2wt. So, I wanted to recreate this piece of cane to that type of lightweight standard.

Project born: Create a 6'6" 3wt rod for similar small stream conditions.
I reduced the rod length, added a new reel seat and grip. I turned the grip myself, but bought the reel seat. I also gave it a new varnish coating.
My wife made the rod sack, and I decorated the ABS pipe rod tube. (it had lived in this tube for 40 years prior to this re-do)

[Moke]

Why do I call it the "Ladybug"?
My homestream has a Ladybug hatch every year.  They group up for mating on boulders at the waters edge. There are millions and millions of them, so thick that they fall off into the creek in mattes.  The trout tear into those floating mattes and froth the water.

This is my homestream.  It is too close to L.A. basin area to name it, outright.
This is my first fish caught and released with this rod. It is a Brown Trout of about 12", taken on a June Bug dry fly pattern.

img9921 & 9922 are my homestream, its boulders and LAdybug hatch.

img 0102 and 0104 is the break-in fish for the Ladybug cane fly rod.

[Moke]

quick post to hold this spot. I'm fixin' to tell a tale. check back later.

tale tellin commences,....

In regard to my trip to my home stream, and the break-in of the Ladybug (and another cane resto-mod break-in that I've yet to describe)

I got up before sun, and started to drive to the mountain.  It was in February, and a really cold start to the day; clear and crispy.
I made it to the mountain, where there was lots of snow and ice on the road, and I drive to the end of the paved road. This is at the border of private and national forest lands. At this point, you go onto dirt roads, and down canyon for apprx. 15 miles of off-road adventure to get to the stream.  Its a deep and steep canyon.
On beginning the dirt road, I shift to 4wd, and, all goes well on the road in.
I get to the end of the road, to my stream, and I rig up, and start hiking. The road ends at the stream, where it is entirely fishable, but the better fishing is upstream.
I spend my day fishing; the water was twice as high as normal, and sort of pushy.  But, I managed to catch nice Brown Trout on both of my newly resto-modded cane rods, and felt satisfied with my day.
I hiked out as the sun was getting to the mountain ridgeline.  I jumped into the truck, and started home.

On the way in, the road was frozen hard. I had four wheel drive on the way in; smooth and sure.
On the way out, it had turned to mud.
AND on the way out,… I lost my front axle engagement.  This meant two-wheel drive and an empty pickup bed, for slickness, and back end slippage. 
No front axle, and, the better part of ten more miles of steep uphill, with lots of ruts, and creek crossings.

I got through some nasty stuff just fine, until I came to the largest creek crossing (a small stream). There, I got stuck in ruts, and had to use my high-lift farm jack to get unstuck by lifting and stacking rocks uphill, up the rut.  Finally, I got enough traction to advance another mile.
At the next obstacle, I had to negotiate a sloped turn, with a steep side slope angle. It was quite similar to a steeply sloped boomerang, ), with an unavoidable rut that led to a small side of road creek flow. And of course, without front traction, I found that rut, and delivered myself into the creek, and part way up the side of the road in a really precarious place. I was dead stuck with no way out.
I got out of the truck, and immediately saw lots of deer tracks, and, Mountain Lion paw prints among them. It was nearly dark, and freezing up. I was wet from fishing and creek rut humping, and saw no fun or sport walking out at night in Mt. Lion country. So, I stripped off these old beach blankets that I ha on my backseat for sun fading, and called those my blankets for what was a long clear freezing night of howling winds.
That was a rough night.
Next morning, I get up, and wrap myself in everything that I had in the truck; towels, and a poly blanket shawl, and my fly rods, reels and vest, and I started walking out.  I had at least 5 more miles to go before I hit asphalt again.

I finally got to the road, and walked up to the first house that was there. I looked like the most derelict of homeless/transients, as I was covered in mud, wrapped in beach towels and blanket, complete with three rod tubes that who knows what they could hold?!?
I knocked on that door, and stepped back like 25’, and hoped for an answer. All I was after was perhaps to use a telephone, so that I could contact my wife and let her know that I had not been eaten by a bear, or by the mountain.
What I got was a warm handshake, and an offer for a fireplace and warm cup of coffee. Come on in.

I offered my story to him, and he reacted by going out and warming up his truck, a 4x4, and he grabbed a tow strap, and, he loaded me up, and down canyon we went.  We got to my truck, and we pulled it off of its sketchy slope perch, and, back down to the flat spot at the bottom of the boomerang turn.
I made sure that he was ahead of me, due to the possibility of me getting stuck again.  But, we made it.
If I had made it another 100 yards in my first effort, I would have been fine. But with the overnight freeze of the ground, it was firm enough for me to get a grip, and, I made it up and out.

Hold a good thought for Daniel.  He was a very trusting individual, who really gave it his all, to help a fellow traveller.
I’ve not been able to get back there since then, as huge flash floods shut all access to the area for over a year. It has only just reopened to travel on the asphalt road. The national forest roads were still closed when I last checked.

[Nee Zee]

Glad you revived this thread, was surprised to find it in an airgun forum though. I'll be posting on it soon...

[Moke]

This is Sterling
Sterling is a 7'6" 4/5wt. Montague cane rod. I find it to be a very nice 4wt.

Why Sterling?
I don't know why. It was inscribed on the butt section.

I received this rod, and, several others as gifts from a friend on an audio forum They were his fathers, and, as a lot, were not really usable, due to various issues. That gent liked what he saw with my Ladybug, and he offered me his fathers rods and reels. He gave me three rods, and I've completed restorations and repairs on two of them, with the third still in process.
On the day that I described on my home stream, with the Ladybug, this rod was also used and also caught a nice 12" Brown on its debut use. we parted ways when the fly came loose at the hand - no pics.

I stripped the finish off, as it was peeling away. I replaced the grip with a cottonwood bark grip that I shaped myself. I put a hardwood burl handle and nickel silver slide rings on it, and revarnished the rod.

Sterling,....

[Moke]

This is a Beans LL cane rod

It is said to be a Phillipson 8'6" 6wt. sold by LL Beans, in Maine, back in the day (long before todays trendy LL Bean retail biz). The day being 1950's, maybe even late 40's
This is in as received condition
It is in beautiful shape, but has had some tip-top guide replacement at some point due to a broken tip.
I have not yet fished this rod.

I'd like to replace the reel seat with a blued nickel-silver slide band, and hardwood burl seat. I do not like down/uplock seats. I'd also like to replace its ridiculously small stripper guide.

[bantam5s]

Light & ultralight spin fishing has always been my thing.
I've thought about getting into fly fishing, but I think my hobby of vintage spinning reels is involved enough.
It's especially involved when my preferences are so picky,  I'm only interested in what I consider to be top notch quality and for me that puts almost all Japanese made reels off the table.

[Nee Zee]

I'm only interested in what I consider to be top notch quality and for me that puts almost all Japanese made reels off the table.

Seriously? Are you sure you didn't mean to say Chinese made?

[Nee Zee]

My first big passion as a hobby is not airguns, it is actually reels, although I have started down the airgun rabbit hole lately...

So, I too like the vintage American-made Penns and Shakespears. My first big Striped Bass (35lbs) was caught with a Spinfisher 712 from shore! But I also prize some of the vintage high-end Japanese reels. Here's a sample of one by Daiwa:

[bantam5s]

I'm only interested in what I consider to be top notch quality and for me that puts almost all Japanese made reels off the table.

Seriously? Are you sure you didn't mean to say Chinese made?

Nope, but keep in mind that I am just talking about spinning reels,  and mostly from the 60's

The Japanese pioneered the mechanisms used in the Chinese reels today, and I have yet to see a Japanese freshwater spinning reel that didn't have mostly pot metal parts inside.
A pot metal drive gear, pot metal cross-wind block, a pot metal cross-wind transfer gear, and usually a short brass pinion gear for the rotor.
You won't find a worm drive main gear, a steel or brass drive gear, steel or brass cross-wind arm, brass bushings or brass thrust bearings.
You may find features like higher speed gear ratios but that has no correlation to quality.
You may often find more bearings advertised on late 70's+ Japanese reels, but those bearings used as a marketing tool are really just there to offset the problem with pot metal gears.
They are miles ahead of the modern stuff because they do have cast alloy bodies, but otherwise they fall short internally.

The large saltwater reels may be a different story, but the standard freshwater and the ultralight reels that I'm most interested in fail to meet my standards.
I hear great things about the large Daiwa Gold Series & Silver series reels, the silver Ryobi reels, and the Omori manufactured reels sourced by Shakeaspeare starting in the late 70's but I haven't seen any that weren't exactly what I expected them to be.

The highest quality Japanese ultralight reel I know of is the Daiwa seiko SS no no.1 and it's twin the GS1, and even they are a step below with pot metal internals and a plastic bail arm.
They are a B grade reel when the average Japanese spinning reel is a B- and the American & European made spinning reels I seek are B+-A+ quality.



I'll take them over any modern offering any day of the week, but there are higher quality reels out there.

[Nee Zee]

Ah yes, those 70's era USA reels and the German DAM's were certainly made with heavy duty gearing. They had to be because their anti-reverses worked by using the main gear to stop the drivetrain, so lesser gears wouldn't stand up to that stress very well.

Daiwa's iconic GS and the later original BG series had rotor-based anti-reverse and the gears did just fine. As for ultra-light, how heavy do you really need gears to be? I have a tiny Daiwa all metal "Mini Mite" that has handled snook with it's rotor-based anti-reverse. And then there's the lesser known SS Series with brass gears. To each his own brother, tight lines!

[bantam5s]

I suppose I just really love my buttery smooth worm drive reels that are built like tanks and don't need a bunch of extra bearings to be buttery smooth.
I like knowing I can bring in anything from bluegill to largemouth and some striped bass without worry.
I do really like my little Daiwa Seiko SS no.1 and find it to be a very good looking little reel, but with it's gears and plastic bail arm I would be careful not to fish for much more than bluegill with it.

I think the most important thing is that basically all vintage spinning reels are better looking and better made than any basically disposable plastic reel made in China today.
Most of them won't still be fishing in 50-60 years from now.

[bantam5s]

Well both of those bearings which I bought from 2 different Ebay sellers ( each only had one left) turned out to be completely wrong.  
You can see that it's I don't know how many sizes larger than the original.

I don't know what happened but have contacted both sellers looking to resolve the situations.


I have never had to order specific ball bearings by size before , so I had been looking for exact measurements when searching before.
In searching I was coming up with nothing, no exact inch sizes or metric.


Long story short after learning that bearings are sold in nominal sizes I ditched the caliper, grabbed my STARRETT rule and got 1/4×5/8×3/16 that searched on BearingsDirect.com, that turned up an R4ZZ @ 1/4×5/8×.196 listed as interchangeable with the SK1DD7 so I ordered 4.

The first thing I tried before was Searching the relevant information on one of my original FAFNIR bearings.
 I read C5 and I read S1KDD7, and which do you think I thought was the bearing code ?
I searched FAFNIR C5 bearing.
If I had known this whole time that the bearing was an S1KDD7 I could have searched

Well I think this headache is finally over, at least I hope.

[jimbo]

I have the Diawa  BG10, BG15, and the BG60 and I've had them for 40 years. I've used the BG10 a lot over the years and the BG15 a little bit but the BG60 I only used for one season years ago to snag salmon (when it was legal) in Jackson Park, Chicago. But I really take good care of my stuff and that's why it lasts. I just took the BG 10 and 15 completely apart and stripped out all of the old grease and oil and  relubed them. I replaced a bail spring on the BG10 (over the years I've gone thru a lot of bail springs on that little sucker) but the BG60 I don't quite know what to do with, I doubt that I'll probably ever use it again. I just love theBG!0 and I'll most likely use the BG15 next year in Manitoba. Great reels in my opinion.

[bantam5s]

I finally had some success , and the AMPEC R4Z bearing is exactly what I needed.

[Nee Zee]

... I just love theBG!0 and I'll most likely use the BG15 next year in Manitoba. Great reels in my opinion.

Totally agree, the 1st gen BG's are iconic. I have a predecessor to them, a GS13, basically the same as a BG but with a gold finish. The BG's durable black finish was a great improvement. My GS13 though, if it was a car, would have like a million miles on it. The finish looks like poop, but it's still going strong. But yeah, those darn bail springs, today's "everlasting" bail springs are one of the best developments in modern reels.

[bantam5s]

The bail springs are definitely one downside to even the best of vintage spinning reels.
I've experienced a number of reels with anemic bail snap.