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Places I shouldn't be left unsupervised, or allowed to linger long in.
I took a rod into River City last week to consign, as I don't use it, and could've put the money to better use. BUUT I stayed 10 minutes too long after coming to rock bottom price that I wanted out of the rod. I was browsing, BSing with the owner (a great guy who has always treated me well) when he just drops a casual comment, "if you see anything over there you like, we can do some trading and I can give you a bit more value" - it was like hitting super man with kryptonite. He had some vintage rods I was looking at - and I brought home a pair of American made Penn Gold Medal fly rods - a 9 foot #6, and a 9 foot #7, IM6 graphite 2 piece rods. 1990's production. I "needed" these rods like another hole in my head. But "need" is subjective in fly tackle.
Doing some sidewalk casting, both rods are winners. I dig the softer flex of an IM6 rod compared to today's stiffer, higher modulus stuff. The 6 is delicate enough to fish dry flies down to about a 4lb test tippet, but with enough chutzpah to throw some smaller bass bugs, streamers to probably an articulated size 4, and everything in between. It'd handle summer steelhead too, if I wanted to have some light tackle fun.
The 7 weight, on the other hand, is going to be a great bass rod. It'll be good for hucking poppers and probably upto my 6 inch long streamers with authority. Of the two, the 7 has a more comfortable, fatter grip, which is nice. Both have smooth medium actions.
Penn fly rods never took off in the way that Loomis, Lamiglas, and Sage did - but Penn has always been known for rock solid spinning/casting tackle, and these rods are no different. Doing some digging on the Internet, it seems these rods were produced under contract for Penn by another maker - but no one seems to be able to pin down exactly who - Lamiglas is the leading candidate, other likely culprits are G Loomis and St Croix.
Either way - I'm happy as a clam, I managed to grow my rod collection by one, and didn't cost me a dime.
I took a rod into River City last week to consign, as I don't use it, and could've put the money to better use. BUUT I stayed 10 minutes too long after coming to rock bottom price that I wanted out of the rod. I was browsing, BSing with the owner (a great guy who has always treated me well) when he just drops a casual comment, "if you see anything over there you like, we can do some trading and I can give you a bit more value" - it was like hitting super man with kryptonite. He had some vintage rods I was looking at - and I brought home a pair of American made Penn Gold Medal fly rods - a 9 foot #6, and a 9 foot #7, IM6 graphite 2 piece rods. 1990's production. I "needed" these rods like another hole in my head. But "need" is subjective in fly tackle.
Doing some sidewalk casting, both rods are winners. I dig the softer flex of an IM6 rod compared to today's stiffer, higher modulus stuff. The 6 is delicate enough to fish dry flies down to about a 4lb test tippet, but with enough chutzpah to throw some smaller bass bugs, streamers to probably an articulated size 4, and everything in between. It'd handle summer steelhead too, if I wanted to have some light tackle fun.
The 7 weight, on the other hand, is going to be a great bass rod. It'll be good for hucking poppers and probably upto my 6 inch long streamers with authority. Of the two, the 7 has a more comfortable, fatter grip, which is nice. Both have smooth medium actions.
Penn fly rods never took off in the way that Loomis, Lamiglas, and Sage did - but Penn has always been known for rock solid spinning/casting tackle, and these rods are no different. Doing some digging on the Internet, it seems these rods were produced under contract for Penn by another maker - but no one seems to be able to pin down exactly who - Lamiglas is the leading candidate, other likely culprits are G Loomis and St Croix.
Either way - I'm happy as a clam, I managed to grow my rod collection by one, and didn't cost me a dime.