The Parker-Hawes Rod

[Austin W Hogan]

Was Art on one of the 600 channels? I'll look for a repeat.

My Orvis "99" 7 1/2 foot HDH works great with a floating line and my 8 1/2 foot Madison GBF lifts a streamer as it should. When it comes to roll casting a nymph to a spot 20 feet from my feet, my fibreglas "Orvis Full Flex" copies of the nymph rod do the job.

About 10 years ago I bought an Orvis Henry's Fork GEF carbon fibre, as it most closely matched the nymph rod. It was very good except for that 15 - 25 foot window for upstream nymph fishing. I had a gravel bar disappear under me last season and took a good spill. The rod finished out the day, but made cracking noises the next time out. I took it to Manchester in early February hoping to find a new butt section. My rod returned by UPS three weeks later with a new butt at no charge. Orvis is retroactively guaranteeing their high end carbon rods for 25 years.

I tried several new rods while there. They are all as fast as a 220 Swift. I think that the butt section from an old telescoping steel rod would match the action. The fibreglas rods were made using the same QC jigs as the bamboo they imitated. The carbon fibre rods
have an action alltheir own.


Best, Austin

[Dean Romig]

Austin, I don't know what the channel number is from your provider, mine is 307 or 308, but it is a show often televised as "Quebec Outfitters" and is narrated by a man with a French Canadian accent and covers anything from white tail deer hunting to ice fishing to Atlantic Salmon fishing. From my provider it is at least a weekly show.

The ultra-fast, stiff action rods being made today are not for small stream fishermen but are for the younger set who believe more is better and longer casts will get you into more and bigger fish... a prevalent myth today. Glass, cane or even graphite rods like my slower actioned Thomas & Thomas rods of the early '80's are powerful enough to turn over a shorter line and accurately present a roll-casted nymph or streamer.

[Austin W Hogan]

I think the ultimate Parker would be an A 1S with an entry in the order book for a cleaning rod made from a Hawes butt section.
This isn't beyond the realm of reason; I once had a muzzle loading S X S with a bamboo rod butt as a ram rod.

Best, Austin

[Old and Reliable]

Austin-HDH and GBF- back in the silk line era, weight and taper codes, right? An HDH would be a double tapered line, a GBF sounds like a weight forward design, perhaps a bass bug taper. One of my Michigan steelhead/salmon rods was an Orvis Graphite 9 ft- had the detachable FB, alum uplocking reel seat with dual lock rings- believe it was an 8 weight, and I bought it the first year Orvis came out with their 25 year warranty on graphite rods.

I can tell you for a fact they lived up to that. In July 1988, eight of us in the FFF flew into Galgary and fished the Bow river for five days straight- all flies only, all C&R--fantastic- didn't get dark until about 10:30 (2200 hrs.) so we had 12 hours on river time- two to a Lavro drift boat with guide, enough river that we all got to fish a different section each day-

My best fishing pal then had just bought a new Orvis graphite, again, the 25 year warranty. We all took at least three rods and reels up there, usually had one rod rigged for dries or nymphs, the other with ST lines for "spank the bank" with weighted streamers-- Bob had set his new Orvis graphite somewhere near the sockets for the sweep oars, the wind came up and the rod shattered just behind the ferrule- when we got back home he sent it into Orvis, two weeks later he received a brand new one- same model, and Orvis reimbursed him the shipping costs as well- Says a great deal about the "Big O"

FYI- as I was a "tackle junkie" I guess back then, high end reels and rods, here's my arsenal for that trip-- R.L. Winston Std. action graphite -9 foot-3 pc. 7/8 wt. made for me by Glenn Brackett- equipped with early series Ross S-1 saltwater reel with the stainless steel drag and extra spool- Thomas and Thomas 9 foot 2 pc. graphite 6 wt. with Bogdan Trout reel- and Doug Merrick SF Winston split-cane 8 & 1/2 foot 2 pc. one tip 6 wt. with Hardy Perfect 3 & 3/8" dia. reel (I later had Glenn make a matching second identical tip for it- just as I had Bob Sommers made a matching replacement tip for my 7 & 1/2 ft. 5 wt. Young Perfectionist)--

I still have many fotos from that trip-and although I am now "out of the game" I still have many fond memories of times spent on rivers of now remembrances.. All good--

[Rod N. Gunn]

Austin - Today I had a similar thought, yet reversed. I am having some reel seat inserts made to build a couple new fly rods and I like walnut the best because I love guns. It occurred to me that using an old gun stock would be cool. The hunk of wood spends its first 100 years hunting and its second 100 years fishing, I should be so lucky. - Dave

[C Roger Giles]

Marc;

What is your source for the Danville Tying Thread?

Roger

[Big D]

At the risk of being a cynic, well-tied knots don't fail. As a volunteer instructor at the Michigan Trout Unlimited School each year, I have studied and taught fly fishing knots a bunch.
Look at the failed knot. If the remaining end is a curly pigtail, then the knot failed. If it is a clean end, then the tippet broke.

When tightening up the knot, wet it to provide lubrication, and draw it up slowly to reduce friction and resulting heat, which weakens monofilament.

Light tippets can be protected with light rods and soft strikes

BTW, anyone interested in the school to learn or improve your fly fishing skills. (June 11/12/13 this year) please visit www.tuffs.org

[Dean Romig]

John, at the risk of sounding arrogant and self-righteous, I've been tying both tiny and large flies onto all sorts of tippet material for well over fifty years and will snip off and re-tie any knot I have any doubt in... even in the heat and frenzy of an evening spinner fall - if you know what I mean

[Big D]

Agreed!. Particularly at 2 in the morning during the "Hex" spinners on the Au Sable. At least then you can use some really stout hawser material - the big browns don't seem to mind.

[Marc Retallack]

Roger

I normally buy it from my home shop, Clouser's Fly Shop. They've been having an issue getting the smoke colored so I did a Google search. After trying a few dozen sites, I found some at Doc's Fly Box- https://www.docsflybox.com/sunshop/i...t_detail&p=927 . It's getting hard to find so I ordered 10 spools this past weekend.

Marcus