For the Fly Fishermen!

[Roundsworth]

My Dad bought this bamboo set-up in Tokyo while on R&R in 1952. He was with a Combat Engineer Group in Korea at the time. The wooden box is a bit battered, but all the pieces are still there, including a bunch of flies. As far as I know, the pole has never been assembled. It will be a project one day, to reassemble/repair the box and clean off the 58 years of dust!

[Marc Retallack]

Very nice Mark. Seeing that almost changes my mind about walking away from a rather pristine 7wt Orvis "Manchester" yesterday.

Cheers
Marcus

[Roundsworth]

I have never attempted fly fishing, but it looks like fun! Dad used to do it a lot before I came into the picture. I only recall seeing him do it once. The outfit pictured is the last of his gear. He never took it out of the box. There are remnants of a cellophane wrapper still on the cork handle. The lid has sliding compartments full of flies. I have a lot of projects in store for this second retirement, and this will be a worthwhile endeavour. Cheers!

[Jerry Andrews]

Those rods are from Occupied Japan, most of them were called " Sakura Rod Kits". They made it into this country in pretty decent numbers at one point, a lot of hardware stores handled them. Nice find. Jerry

[Roundsworth]

Dad said he bought 3 of the outfits. He was in Korea for about a year and a half and managed some R&R in Tokyo. How long or often, I don't know. It was quite an expedition getting from his base to Japan, he said. I bought my house from the folks and they left a few surprises for me. I had to call Dad to get the full story on the fly rod when I found it.

[Old and Reliable]

Mark, if your father bought this in about 1952- that was still in the silk fly line era- and the alpha lettering system for weight and taper- about 1954 in Midland MI the Scientific Anglers Co. got started and revised fly lines. If you have some friends who fly fish,I'd suggest trying their lined fly reels on this rod and lawn cast- find the combo that seems to be best for you- remembering the mantra- "Casting ain't catching"--

When you assemble the rod with the ferrules, I use a dab of waterless hand soap on a Q-tip to lubricate them- and always wipe any moisture off the varnish before you put it away. A proper length of PVC tubing makes a good utility rod case for transport-

Hope you take up fly fishing- it is a great sport and many avid bird hunters are also fly fishermen.