Category Archives: product

“More function” versus “Less filling” would convince me to lighten my wallet

It’s my contention that the only thing spurring innovation is the much reviled competition scene, every other rod maker is fiddling with weight and thinking they’re being creative as all hell.

The idea is certainly clever, a fifth piece, lacking guides, that transforms a nine footer into a Czech nymph rod; but they might want to keep going and include a detachable handle and a three foot extension that makes a full blown spey or switch rod.

fifth_section

Why not more than a single use for a fly rod? It would go a long way to lessen the clutter in the garage, lower the divorce rate, and make rods multi-seasonal, and we could get a deftly accented quiver to carry all those spare sections.

No guides means we can snap them in or take them out at any time. If we’re striding the bank looking for trout and spy a pod of feeding carp, we snap in the stiff section, cut the leader back to 0X, and alter our timing.

Or the line makers could extend the multi-tip concept beyond the spey crowd, and we could snap in a weight forward segment that boosts the five to a six, even a seven …

Walton Powell (and others) have always insisted that rods can handle three different weights with little more than a timing change, suggesting them wily Czech’s were listening.

… and while the mainstream rods go for “less filling” over “taste’s great” they’re just marking time until Graphene can be rolled on a mandrel. The wait won’t be long as they’re already testing TV screens made with a four atom thick variant.

A material one atom thick that’s stronger than steel, almost transparent, and you dare not set the rod down in a strong wind … We’ll jettison the extra scabbard notion and take a segment out of our wading staff to extend the rod.

The Greatest Invention yet to come may be here now

electronicsp Top 10 lists be damned, the greatest advancement to fly fishing ever invented is about to debut – and us old mean bastards can take our rightful place in the riffle undeterred by all the energy drink antics around us …

… assuming we still have good balance, naturally …

According to PixelOptics the patented electronic lenses provide dynamic and intelligent optics by using a combination of “chemistry, electricity, and other components” to correct for visual problems such as presbyopia, or loss of near focus common in people over 40. The lens has a section with an electro-active liquid crystal layer within it, and the index of refraction of this layer can be changed by a small electrical current passing through it, with the focal length varying with the current applied. Motion detection of the glasses is achieved by motion sensors similar to those used in the iPhone.

In automatic mode the electro-active layer is turned on and the focus changes automatically and almost instantly as the wearer tilts his or her head (to read a book or newspaper for example) and looks through the transparent electronic layer. In manual on mode the lenses behave like normal progressive lenses with the electronic layer frozen in the on position for close distances with the eyes looking down, but objects straight ahead in the distance can still be seen clearly. In manual off mode there is no current in the electronic layer, and so the lenses act like a low power progressive lens, which has little distortion and is good for everyday activities such as playing sports, walking, and so on.

Presbyopia, a fearsome word … you’re going to get it in your mid-40’s and it’s a game changer.

Having enjoyed perfect vision all my life I was not prepared for the impacts to my fishing (and fly tying) when my vision started to change. Small flies and fine tippets were useless without magnification, and if your glasses landed in the creek the trip was over.

Worse was the last 30 minutes before dark – the Sacred Time, when dumb fish get dumber and the big fish finally ease out from the protective cover of their log – and all I could do was hope the fly I’d tied on earlier would continue to work.

Now, like you, I fumble with reading glasses knotted around my neck – or trying to get sunglasses with a reading prescription that cost many hundreds of dollars, only to watch them tinkle apart on the side of the boat – or sink gracefully out of sight …

Low distortion electronic lense

… it ain’t fair. Just when all those skills come together, Father Time pulls the rug out …

The electronic glasses give a wider field of view with much less distortion than traditional bifocal lenses or progressive addition lenses. They also give optimal vision for far and near distances, and in between.

The down side is that batteries are sold separately. The manufacturer recommends they be charged nightly, and claims a single charge is good for 3 to 5 days, just enough for a long weekend.

A thousand dollar bamboo rod or similar priced glasses? I wouldn’t even blink … but I’m going to look awful silly with a big Styrofoam float attached to my specs.

Tags: Presbyopia, small flies, prescription sunglasses, bamboo rod, electronic lens, fly tying, old farts unleashed

The new austerity and the dawn of the dollar bag

ziploc_bigbag Been a big week for the Singlebarbed staffers, first we’re designated a “High Value Site” by the Trout Underground and it’s too late to take it back, and we’ve moved to swanky new digs on the Internet – which has left us broke and penniless …

So we’ll start with an austerity post, a belt tightening move that’ll show those spendthrifts in government they’re doomed, hopefully a preview of tomorrow’s primary election.

The much anticipated, oft imitated, debut of the $1 wader bag.

A glimpse at the Singlebarbed Freezer

Ziploc bags big enough to hold a set of damp and odiferous waders – or their companion felt soled shoes, destined for freezing or quarantine. Now “Mama” won’t come unglued at the sight of your muddy brogans taking up precious space in her freezer – or leaving tell tale signs of your trespass.

… and for the fly tying crowd, we can finally secure those long graceful tail feathers, and not find them chewed past usefulness and in the process of infecting the rest of the drawer.

Ziploc® Brand Big Bags are available in three big sizes:

  • L equivalent to 3 Gallon (11.4L) 1.25 FT. x 1.25 FT. (38.1cm x 38.1cm) 5ct.
  • XL equivalent to 10 Gallon (37.8L) 2 FT. x 1.7 FT. (60cm x 51 cm) 4ct.
  • XXL equivalent to 20 Gallon (75.7L) 2 FT. x 2.7 FT. (60cm x 82 cm) 3ct.

A canny fellow would find a way to secrete a box under the driver’s seat. After you swerve to accidentally blindside that cud chewing Milk Cow in your out-of-control-Prius, you can toss the carcass into the back seat in a tasteful and sanitary bundle.

Tags: Ziploc bags, fly tying, tail feathers, felt soled waders, Internet service provider, high dollar web site, austerity, California primary election

Is angling cruel, are the fish in pain, does it really matter?

Do fish Feel Pain? I know where they’re trying to push us, and while I have my share of suppositions I still don’t know who they are …

The reviewers who offered their opinions about the scientific merit of our application, however, stressed that it would be more interesting to find out if a sharp object passing through the mouth of a fish would be painful. Clearly recreational fishing was what these scientists wanted to know about, not fish farming.”

Professor Victoria Braithwaite has penned a book entitled, “do fish feel pain?” – describing the experiments and logic that went into her research on trout sensory receptors.

As mentioned in prior posts that skirted this subject, the scientific community hotly debates whether lower life forms have the ability to suffer – as suffering requires a form of consciousness, and areas of the brain, gray matter among others, that many lower organisms lack.

“Whether sentience and consciousness are processes that occur in non-human animals is something that has occupied philosophers and psychologists for decades, and they have yet to agree on an answer.”

… and despite your experiences to the contrary, a trout’s brain is about the size of a pea, a trait shared with both houses of Congress.

This is not a fishing book, nor is it written for the angling community. I’d describe it as science that never had the opportunity to explain itself fully, given the sudden sensationalism fostered by the press and their misuse of the scientific soundbyte. The author notes she was completely unprepared for the attention paid her when the research was released in 2009, and it appears the book was written to moderate some of that media-furor with scientific groundwork.

Ms. Braithwaite describes in detail the step by step methodology and experimentation that brought her team to their conclusion; that fish do feel pain and have the capability to suffer as we humans.

She outlines the constructs that serve as the piscatorial counterparts to human nerves, pathways to the brain, and grey matter, in a lucid and patient manner that allows us non-scientists to follow without feeling the need for definition or additional explanation.

Using mild solutions of vinegar and bee venom, her team injected trace amounts in the lips of fish and showed how trout behave differently than control groups of saline injected fish, and fish that were merely handled and not injected at all. In all this science there are many tidbits for fishermen, as her description of fish handling and how it can alter trout behavior.

“But the trout that had been given bee venom or vinegar continued to show no interest in the food and their gill beat rate stayed above 70 beats a minute even after the second hour passed. Eventually their breathing rate did begin to decline but it didn’t return to the resting level about 50 beats a minute until almost three and a half hours after they had been initially exposed to bee venom or vinegar. And around that time the fish’s motivation to feed began to return.”

To her credit, Professor Braithwaite stays clear of the philosophical implications of her research, but does pose the obvious question numerous times; is this enough to require us to afford fish similar protections enjoyed by chicken, pigs, and cattle, and should industrial harvest methodology be changed to reflect this newfound consciousness?

While most farm animals are slaughtered in great numbers for our collective table, lower forms of life like fish can be harvested without the luxury of a speedy kill, many gasp out their last minutes while sliding across a trawler deck or flash frozen while still gasping …

I enjoyed the read (it’s a short tome, 184 pgs.) and followed the description of science closely. I’m sympathetic to the theory, so little convincing was required. Mother Nature has always been a miracle of efficiency, and it makes sense that whatever flesh and senses prevent me from touching an open flame, would be present in most of her creatures.

Anglers have the smaller issues to wrestle with once we’re shown as insensitive bullies. While the larger picture doesn’t change, will any legislation stemming from the environmental lobby trickle down into our cold little creek?

I’m unmoved by the larger issue, that of fish as sentient entities. I’ve always had great respect for my quarry, and even when fishing for trash fish have never indulged in throwing them onto the bank as a penalty for eating – and always ate what I killed.

The idea that fish fear me is appropriate, as I mean them harm. A sore lip for three or four days, and I’ll trade wisdom for the experience.  It’s part of my birthright as a member of the highest order of the food chain, and while I recognize it as a fortunate happenstance – will spend no time bemoaning the unfairness of it all. My appetites are well documented and unchanged and were there 50 fish within casting distance I would want to catch all of them many times.

I don’t seek parity, nor do I believe equilibrium and complete fairness is even desirable. I swim upstream against the current while the shadows of predators darken my path. The unscrupulous hedge fund manager bent on churning my 401K, the crack head that covets my stereo,  and the drunken driver oblivious to lane or direction.

I’d simple say, “No. Food doesn’t have rights, and if I can’t explain to a grieving mother why her son died to an Afghan sniper, I’m not obligated to consider the feelings of a rutabaga when I wrestle it from the ground.”

It’ll get it’s turn when radiation and evolution makes it the top of the food chain.

… and If I make it to infirmity I’ll be a wise and fat fish – with a deep and impenetrable lie that confounds predators and their attempts to lay hands on my fair frame.

That’s Darwinism, the poster child of fairness.

Full Disclosure: The book was provided to me free by way of the Oxford Press, via Eccles of Turning over Small Stones.

Tags: Victoria Braithwaite, fish feel pain, bee venom, lower life forms, trout testing, fly fishing,

Where we stumble across the Good Old Days, and buy a couple of armloads of the stuff

Mustad 3116A As today is the much dreaded “Tax Day” I thought I’d interrupt that lethal mix of sulk and stress with a return to the 1950’s – more importantly, a return to 50’s pricing…

I stumbled on the Motherload of antique Mustad and Sealy Octopus hooks from a vendor on eBay, tracked down his store and wielded MasterCard’s Terrible Swift Sword to lay in a significant supply.

… we’re talking 1950’s Mustad iron; sharp as razors, with long lethal points, strange hook numbers you’ve never heard of and never seen except in picture books featuring flies by Darbee and his ilk, who bemoan the loss of all that quality iron common to the “good old days.”

They’re here, now – and you’d better jump on them before they’re all gone.

The smallest lot the vendor sells is 500 hooks (5 boxes) and the cost ranges from $6 / 500 to about $12 /500, unless you want salmon doubles ($49 /750) or something really large.

Mustad 36712 Grab a cup of coffee and settle in – there are hundreds of variations available and you’ll need to look close and read the description to get what you want – as the hook style numbers will be unfamiliar.

If it says “reversed” or “offset” it’s a Kirbed hook, whose point is offset from the shank (like many of the Czech nymph patterns). “Offset” means the point is 5-10 degrees to the right, and “reversed” means a similar move to the left. As most of you are unfamiliar with Kirbed hooks it’s something you may not appreciate, and therefore should be avoided.

They even have the old “Sneck” bend dry fly hooks (#10, #8) which are the old square bend hook that were popular circa WWII. The hooks and boxes are largely pristine, with no rust – the occasional discoloration of the paper bindle – but even collectors will be enchanted by their condition.

They have a lot of hooks in 2X strong – and I loaded up accordingly. Contemporary hooks have lost so many of the specialty styles used for steelhead and shad that these are completely irresistible. Today’s vendors are nearly mirror images of each other – having dropped the marginally or seasonally popular hooks for the consistent sellers.

Sneck Bend Dry Fly wire (offset) Take a close look at the 3116A, 36712, and 3667 styles, as these are superb hooks.

Many of these have only two or three sizes available – and some of those are the old odd designations; #7, #9, #13. There are plenty of hooks in the 12-13-14 range, so they must’ve found an old warehouse full of hooks, rather than a picked over, former fly shop inventory.

It’s  furrowed brow material. The fellow across the creek inquires what you caught that last fish on and you blow the water off it before busting his bubble, “ … it was a #13 Adams..”

This is one of those finds that isn’t supposed to happen, so look through all those bends and styles and jump on something, hard. It’s 20 twenty-five packs for less than a sawbuck – and I’ll guarantee to use most of them in future posts – insisting the hook is the real difference.

Eyeball the points on the above pictures – it should be enough to make you reach for the wallet. Be sure to look at the Sproat, Limerick, Round, and Viking categories – most of the fly iron is contained there.

Tags: Harlee Rod, antique Mustad hooks, limerick bend, sproat bend, sneck bend, offset point, reverse point, kirbed point, fly tying, bulk fly tying hooks, Harry Darbee, 2X strong, jump on it

All superlatives taken with a grain of salt

There is a place in every burgeoning entrepreneur’s repertoire for daytime soaps or Judge Judy … Some hideous repetitive task looms, and as you eyeball the points, run your hand over the assembly for burrs, loosen or tighten screws, and whack a chunk of whatever is close by, the Good Judge is sending some sobbing teenager into the steely grasp of the bailiff …

Such has been my fate of late. The gloom of my living room and the toil of quality control leavened with the glow of the boob tube. It’s something learned from commercial fly tying; find a show that’s uninteresting – and focus on the task at hand, glancing up only for the obligatory flash of breast-meat or the dismemberment scene.

… and I even oiled the damned things, because I knew you never would.

I received the first shipment of tungsten-imbued Sixth Finger scissors this week. After paying off all the owe-sies, vendors, and blood relatives, it appears I’ll have nearly 50 sets available of the 4.5” (original size) model. The “General Purpose” large size will be arriving next – as I’ve just approved the final design and finger hole placement.

5.5" Sixth Finger "General Purpose"

The last six months were spent testing three different fingerhole placements, and the hard part was choosing between the last two (shown with blue handles) – but the right-most won, allowing the 5.5” General Purpose to extend beyond the hand the same distance as the smaller 4.5” Original design.

This allows you to switch back and forth between the two styles without changing your grip or suddenly poking out an eye because you forgot which set you were holding.

The longer heavier blade comprises nearly half of the extra length, and we’ve shortened the spring without affecting the effort needed to press the blades closed. The adjustable screw allows for complete scissor disassembly for sharpening, or just give it a quarter turn every couple of years if they loosen with use (and abuse).

Care and Feeding of your New play toy

I’ve witnessed many hideous crimes committed on or with scissors – and only occasionally was it some other oaf – most were of mine own invention.

The 4.5” scissor is a “light duty” precision scissor. Adding faster colors, adjustable screws and tungsten inserts makes it a extremely sharp, light duty scissor.

… it doesn’t make it invulnerable to your hammy handed enthusiasms, nor should it be used to chew concrete.

The sweet spot for this design is the countless tiny snips and trims associated with preparing feathers, positioning, and the finishing of the final product. It will cleave moose hair off the hide, it’ll whack copper wire into pieces, and accomplish most of the fly tying tasks you’ll ask of it.

Do you think the new scissors would work well for tying glo-bugs? I’m looking for a super sharp, heavy duty blade that will last a while tying egg patterns. I’ll try the sample you sent and let you know.

… and my response:

The 4.5" is still a light scissor. While the tungsten allows it to plow through heavier materials, I’d use the 5.5" scissor instead. The larger size has a beefier blade as well as the tungsten – and glo-bugs are heavy work. I’d use  the heavier blade only because it’s less about "can it do it" – than it is about "can it do a million of them."
Proper tool for the proper job rules – that heavier blade should allow you to chop a fistful of yarn a million times – the lighter scissor might be able to do it – maybe even well – but the pressures on the screw hole will chew the scissors up … the blades will loosen … and you’re left reaching for a new set.

The answer was in the question, “ super-sharp, heavy duty blade.”

Depending on what we were raised on as fly tiers warps our judgment completely. Surgeons have a thousand different kinds of scissor – each suited for specific tasks, yet us fly tiers insist that one pair of scissors be capable of mowing the lawn, mixing drinks, and walking the dog …

Just because you can cut the stem off a turkey quill with a pair of scissors doesn’t mean you can do it a million times without damage.

If you focus your usage in the sweet spot for any scissor, they will last a lifetime.

/end Momma’s lecture

The Avaricious Greed Part

My goal was to keep the price of both styles of scissor below thirty dollars. I was only partially successful …

The 4.5” Tungsten will retail for $28 a pair, and the 5.5” Tungsten will be $29 each. This is consistent with the market maker, Dr. Slick – whose 4.5” tungsten standard scissor is also $28.

But wait, there’s more …

My strident bellow about the inequities of the vendor community require me to trod rarified soil, anything less flirts with hypocrisy. While the gesture will be ignored by the larger community, my ethics require some small allegiance is owed those whose twenty dollars I’ve already pocketed.

Contrary to Harvard Business School and their tutelage, I see the customer as friend and compatriot, not competition.

Therefore, owners of the existing scissor can pick either flavor of the new scissor for $22.

Postage for a single set of scissors is $1.56 – and the padded envelope is $0.42 each, I’ll eat the bubble pack, tape, and the 20 minute wait at the Post Office.

Last time I paid the postage and you got the scissors for $20, this time you’ll pay for the shipping … and get the scissors for $20. This discount will be honored by me only – so asking your local merchant will result in a blank stare.

I’ll keep the offer open until redemptions roughly equal the amount of original scissors sold.

I’ll be working this weekend to update the Google shopping interface (the purchase image in the center column of this blog) to reflect the models and the discount, and dreaming up a surefire way to query you on your older purchase thereby qualifying you for the same.

I’ll mention this option again when the 5.5” models arrive, so if you’re interested in an upgrade decide which flavor you prefer. A rain check will be available if I run out of stock, so there’s little need to rush blindly into a new purchase.

Just my way of saying … thanks.

… and if you simply must be the first on your block, just drop me an email to reserve a set, as this shipment is small and sales look to be brisk.

Full Disclosure: I am the principal vendor for the Sixth Finger scissor and will benefit from any sale of this incredibly awesome scissor. All superlatives used to describe the male enhancing qualities and mind boggling function should be taken with a grain of salt.

Tags: Sixth Finger scissor, tungsten carbide insert, scissor upgrade option, light duty scissor, precision scissor, Google shopping, daytime soaps, Judge Judy, thanks for your patronage

Izaak Walton’s ghostly hand crept out of the soil …

6thBlueTungsten

I could mention the carbon nanotubes, the helical wrap that ensures they’re the  lightest, strongest most awesome ever…

… how they’re dipped in Boron, blessed by the Pope, and Izaak Walton’s ghostly hand crept out of the grave to snatch a pair …

But that’d be bullshit.

Blue, because it’s faster …

More tomorrow.

Tags: Sixth Finger Tungsten, fly tying scissors, testing, blue is faster

What sins are hidden away in your life list?

I'm apologizing to It! I ate everything I ever kept in saltwater, even when I found out that Rainbow Perch was most plentiful around the sewage outlets in San Francisco Bay.

They were plentiful and I was determined to exploit them, never thinking about the estrogen and grey water, and had I known it wouldn’t have mattered – Big City girls thought fish were born in Saran wrap and got the price sticker in adulthood, I was on the outs with the cheerleaders already.

I ate everything I ever kept in freshwater too – except for that Largemouth Bass from Lake Merced. I’d commissioned a couple of ne’er-do-wells to row me around the gray-green water while I flung a monstrous Purple spinnerbait. That snag turned out to be a six pound largemouth, and my youthful delight at confirming the Loch Ness monster of the lower lake tempted me to keep it.

Pop made tracings of the corpse and Ma dutifully cooked it, but nothing could make the jaw move after the first forkful entered. It was if you’d licked the glass of an aquarium …

… completely committed, like one of Ma’s chocolate icing spoons.

Now that the Winnemem Wintu tribal dancers are enroute to New Zealand to apologize to the salmon, in hopes of restoring them to California, a fellow has to look at the carnage and snelled hooks in his wake to see whether apologies are in order.

In a lifetime of fishing I’ve never toed my opponent into the brush, never tossed a stringer full of sunwarmed fish back into the depths, nor mutilated or mangled the vanquished for my amusement or for those with me. I’ve killed plenty, but made it as quick and painless as possible.

One moment of weakness on my sixteenth birthday, where I told Pop I could pass for fifteen for a couple years more, and his ethics made my path plain, “you’re the biggest fishkillingest SOB in the family, and you’ll buy a license like everyone else.”

There is one sodden red check mark near the blank pages yet to be written. I made sport of a Fillet O’ Fish, took it’s name in vain, and sprayed it across Ronald McDonald’s midsection enroute to the trash …

It’s not sport unless you can see your quarry’s eyes – and while I’m sure there are dozens of pairs within that ground, unnaturally pasty flesh, our meeting was chance – and not on the field of battle.

I’ll apologize to it them – when Ronald McDonald apologizes to me.

Tags: Ronald McDonald, Fillet O’ Fish, Winnemem Wintu, apologize to salmon, fishing humor, rainbow perch, San Francisco bay, big city girls, fishing, Saranwrap

It could be the “Switch” rod what done it

Pink_Camo It could be a California angling phenomenon, but I see more guys wearing pink than girls.

… and while fly line color continues to be debated with great ferocity in the forums, the  SIMM’s G3 Guide vest in rust orange debuted with hardly a murmur…

Now that embedded jungle cock and spray of gaily colored feathers adorn our rod blanks ( along with a pancake layer of thick epoxy to guarantee a dead spot ) and brightly colored Fisher-Price artwork emblazon our reels, have we given up the stalk and seduction of fish in favor of a clandestine fling with a brother angler of like mind?

G3Guide Orange Flylogic Berry It could be the water, lord knows we’ve listed the offending hormones often enough, and what’s not been specifically mentioned can be inferred – but all this bawdy-house gear bespeaks of a fundamental shift in the angling psyche.

The old military gear, the olive drab’s and mustard Flecktarn, the muted earth tones designed to blend with bush or bank, the painstakingly crafted digital camouflage, all discarded in a race to announce your presence to the fish with authority.

De Young Series, Abel Automatics

It could be that the majority of the better streams have enough neon motel signs, fast food restaurants, and traffic lights on their banks that pine trees are outnumbered. The big fish lying doggo in Taco Bell’s riffle could associate bright with inanimate, and all the mobile green-stuff is markedly out of place and therefore hostile…

As the magazines and books probe fish vision further – alerting us to every nuance and twice for shortcomings, we change our flies to match ROSS Journey Fly Rod then storm through the quiet water like Liberace?

Be it fish, fowl, mammal, or human, the sacred tenet of Biology has always insisted the male displays bright colors to attract a mate. Which explains why money is green and credit cards are mostly in the vivid spectrum, red or blue, containing holograms or opalescence.

Fish are promiscuous – yet relationships rarely last past hook removal, so all this grandiose finery can’t be for their benefit, it’s apparently something deeper that is opaque to us  odiferous Brownline types – yet is all the rage elsewhere.

As a Native Son, I care not about coveted glances or gang sign, I just need to know whether I’m supposed to pick a rod that is compatible with my cheek blush, or whether it’s the hue of my Manscara I need to match.

… the last thing I need is to see a fellow struggling with a tailing loop and offer a bit of friendly advice, and be met with, “STFU NoOb!”

Tags: Ross Journey Youth fly rod, Abel De Young reel, Simm’s G3 Guide vest, Flylogic reel, Sage Pink Camo, camouflage, invisible to fish, digital camouflage, Flecktarn, Fisher-Price toys

That elusive final frontier

You’ve tied your own flies, you make your own leaders and wrapped your own fly rod, and with each minor triumph the crescendo of endorphins ebbs to leave you feeling hollow and incomplete …

It’s primeval biology that’s your nemesis, the inner Hunter-Gatherer is limited to stalking asparagus, armed with a coupon, and under the watchful gaze of the spouse. Completely unsatisfying, nothing screams, nothing bleeds, and outside of the occasional fishing trip – your emasculation is nearly complete.

Eclectic_Anger_Reels

Photo Courtesy of the Eclectic Angler

But, perhaps not.

The Eclectic Angler has released his tome on handcrafting fly reels using little other than common hand tools and equipment you’ve got rusting in the garage. Even better, he’ll set you up with all the materials in kit form so you can work up the nerve to crack the book.

The Pfleuger Progress and its progeny was the height of fly fishing technology for decades, now you can craft an updated technological marvel that ensures your bragging rights for years to come.

Extension cord sold separately.

Tags: Michael L.J. Hackney, the Eclectic Angler, brass fly reel, Pfleuger Progress, roll your own, hunter-gatherer, fly fishing reel