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Custom Fly Fishing Rods by Chris Lantzy, Custom Rod Maker

Book Review: "8 by Carmichael"

9/25/2014

Hoagy B Carmicheal, son of the famous songwriter & musician by the same name, is the author of "A Master's Guide To Building A Bamboo Fly Rod" (along with Everett Garrison) is very well known in certain fly fishing circles. An angling historian of sorts, & having spent a lifetime in fly fishing, Hoagy looks back at some of the people he's known through fishing in "8 by Carmichael".

Published in 2010, the book is - you guessed it - eight chapters of fly fishing personalities & experiences. From remembering an older angler who helped show him the ropes; to a hysterical story about a friend having to go swimming to retrieve a famous & collectible fly tied by Elsie Darbee that is stuck on an underwater log; to a humorous tale of Florida snook fishing in the dark of night while trying not to get shot by an angry dock-owner's BB gun; this book will make you smile & then make you laugh out loud.

One of the people featured in the book is Chauncy Lively. He was a very innovative fly tier from Pittsburgh. In fact, he's probably one of the most inventive tiers since Theodore Gordon brought the dry fly to America. He was always sharing & teaching others his discoveries & techniques. This profile of Chauncy is a welcomed addition to fly fishing literature & recognition of a man who contributed a TON to our sport.

Both Dr. George Holden Parker & Vince Marinaro are also featured in the book. Both men gave considerable ideas worthy of consideration about fly rod building & design. Carmichael & Marinaro were friends & the chapter about Vince is touching. Hoagy also gives us a better look at Holden as a person, rather than just exploring his rods & we come to learn more about who he was.

All that would make this a good book, but it's the chapter about Ed & Jim Payne that makes this book a must-read. About half the book is dedicated to covering the history of the Paynes. Here, Carmichael's research does anglers, historians, & collectors a really fantastic turn. This is, as far as I know, the most in depth history of these two men & their rods. For those who are fans of Payne rods & reels this book will fill many gaps in your knowledge of them. Ed, the father, is a very important figure in the history of American fishing tackle. Jim, the son, carried on his father's tradition &, quite possibly, made the finest fly rods ever produced. In this long chapter Carmichael sheds new light on these storied tackle makers & I thank him for that.

This is a good book well worth your time. If you're a fan of Ed &/or Jim Payne, than you must read it. I should also mention that my copy is beautifully bound & in a very nice slip-case. All this adds up to a very nice book I think you'll enjoy reading.

Vintage Hardy Brothers

9/22/2014

In 1872 William Hardy started work as a gunsmith in his home in Alnwick, England. The next year his brother John James joined him in business & Hardy Brothers was born. They both quickly developed a reputation for making very high quality firearms.

They soon moved into the manufacturing of fishing equipment, starting with rods. Both guys were very avid & enthusiastic anglers, so the move to making rods was a natural one. Lancewood rods were first made, but then by about ca 1880 they were making bamboo rods.

The very first Hardy Perfect reel was patented in 1891. The rest, as they say, is history. Hardy still makes fine fly reels (& rods, some would say) to this very day.

Below is some old footage of inside the Hardy factory in Alnwick, England. It's really neat to see some of the folks working who made many of the reels or rods that collectors value today. I hope you enjoy this look back at some vintage Hardy footage.

Note: spread out over the next few weeks of posts, we'll be discussing Hardy Brothers. If you are new to collecting vintage tackle, or want to learn a little more about this company, please stay tuned!!

Collecting Hardy Fly Reels

9/17/2014

Fly reels by the Hardy Bros company in England have been sought after by anglers & collectors for generations. Many of their reels are the the standard by which other reels are judged. They were so well made that it's not uncommon to find one of 80 years or more in age still in use.

That said, there are a lot of them out there. Here below, is a short video discussing some of the different models of reels you might encounter in the vintage market when looking for a fly reel by Hardy.

Hardy made reels for every fly fishing need & situation. There's a reel for you, too. They still make reels today & the quality hasn't gone down any at all - though that can be a hot topic of debate among collectors. Either way, new or vintage, the Hardy name appears on some very fine fly reels.

More Wallets Available

9/12/2014

Little by little, I've been replenishing my stock of both leather leader & fly wallets. I've been able to get some really nice leather to work with - some different than I've had before - & now there is a nice variety of wallets to choose from.

I'm really proud of the quality of all these wallets. Folks, these aren't some cheaply made, throw-together wallets. They are made from very nice, heavy leather, made in my shop to last a lifetime. You're not going to find wallets of this quality in many other places.

There's now some nice wallets made from different browns, blacks, & other colors available. To read more about these wallets & to see more photos, please visit the Accessories page.

I plan on adding even more wallets & other accessories in the near future, so please check back often. Now's the time to get prepared for your autumn fly fishing. If you'd like to order a custom wallet in time for the fall, please contact me.

Remembering 9/11

9/11/2014

Thirteen years on, we pause to remember & reflect........

Synthetic vs Natural Fly Tying Materials

9/8/2014

It's been a growing trend over the last thirty years: more & more of our flies are being tied with synthetic materials. There are many reasons for this. One is price - the cost of everything is going up, but natural hairs & especially feathers have skyrocketed in price in recent years. Another reason is the effectiveness of synthetic materials because of how they look & how they are made (more on that later). Also synthetics can be made for a specific purpose or for a desired result. The natural stuff is just what it is.

I suspect one reason, besides price, that synthetics are so popular now is because we anglers are like fish: we are attracted by flashy stuff that is new to us. Add in some slick marketing & new materials coming out all the time & we're hooked. Like anything else, fly fishing is susceptible to marketing trends.

I don't mean to say that synthetics are only a marketing scheme. Far from it, in fact. Indeed, many patterns tied with synthetic materials will catch fish often - sometimes even more than the natural materials. But why?

It's because of the colors or the shine or the reflections (read: attractive & attention-getting qualities) of these synthetics. You see, things like hairs & feathers that grow on an animal are almost always round (sometimes they're flat) in shape. That's because they were made for something other than tying flies (at lest from the animal's perspective). This round shape reflects the light in a certain way. How something reflects light determines how the eye see's it.

Many synthetic materials - like those used in carpets or automobile upholstery - look round but in fact are not. They are actually three-sided. They're called "trilobal fibers". Each of the three sides are flat, giving each fiber more surface to reflect light. The color they are dyed determines how much light they will absorb. This is why some are shiny, some are bright, some are very dull, etc. All this extra light bouncing off these fibers (& your fly) is what gives it that flash that catch all the attention under water.

Still, natural hairs & furs & feathers have been catching fish for centuries. Call me a romantic traditionalist, but I prefer the idea of flies made of natural materials. Be that as it may, I like to catch fish. That's why if you look in my fly box or fly wallet you'll see flies with some flash to them, tied with synthetics. I'd like to believe that I'm no sucker for slick marketing, but if it might attract a fish I'm probably going to try it.

What A Fly Reel Really Does (Most of The Time)

9/3/2014

The other day I was looking through a list of both new & vintage fly reels. This was a long list, with photos, & it represented probably the last 80 to 90 years of fly reels. It included reels as far back as the 1920's to ones that were made last year. Looking over this list, it was easy to see how the styles of reels have changed over the decades. Anyway, it got me to thinking about what a fly reel does, how it functions, & - most importantly - how we use them in our fishing.

Fly reels have been an endless source of innovation for tackle manufacturers. Just when you think that it's all been done, someone comes out with a new design of reel. So you'd think that with all these changes to reel designs over the years that the older ones would be obsolete. You might even wonder why someone would use an older reel. This assumes that the newer designs are better, but when we think about what a fly reel actually does, we realize that the older designs still have a usefulness. After all, they worked way-back-when & the methods of catching fish haven't really changed all that much.

So what does a fly reel really do? It holds your fly line. That might sound like a wise-crack, but it's not. For the majority of fishing situations that's about all you'll use your reel for - holding line. It's not until you get into fishing for larger fish like tarpon, large mouth bass, salmon, pike, or really large trout where the drag system of your reel becomes an issue. For most of the time & for average size fish you won't be using the drag at all. Playing a 10" to 14" trout or a small mouth bass in a medium sized stream shouldn't require the use of an intricate drag on your reel. Those fish can be landed by simply pulling your fly line in by hand.

A fly reel does need some kind of drag system, or at least some tension on the spool to keep it from spinning backward & causing the line to tangle &/or the spool to jam. Also it's nice to have a little bit of drag to help out - especially while you're getting set up to play the fish just after you've set the hook. So a drag system is nice to have on a fly reel.

These days reels, just like rods, are being made of lite weight material & an emphasis is put on the overall weight of the reel. To me that's fine - so long as you use these ultra-lite reels on a rod that doesn't weigh much. In fact, many anglers go to a lot of trouble to get a reel that will balance their fly rod. Again, that's fine - to a point. Don't get too hung up on on that. All you should care about is how the rod & reel feel together. There's no need for a postal scale, if you ask me.

I think the truth is that we choose a particular reel more for how it looks than anything else. There's nothing wrong with that within reason. Fly fishing is full of traditions & you probably don't want to put a new graphite, wide-spool, space-age reel on a classic bamboo fly rod. It just wouldn't look right. You could, but would you want to? It would be like putting big rims & thin-walled tires on a '58 Oldsmobile instead of white wall tires. There's no rules against it, but really???

So the next time you're shopping for a fly reel, new or vintage, don't be made to feel like you need a specific reel (of a certain price) because of all the intricate drag system parts that look like a Swiss timepiece. Instead, find one that will hold your line in a style that you'll enjoy & that functions as it's supposed to. Now, if you're going after the big fish then do some research about drag systems. Otherwise you can handle those average fish without it. You know you can!!

The Pliant Rod

News from the shop of Chris Lantzy, Custom Rod Maker along with industry news, profiles of interesting characters, reviews, history, & whatever else strikes our fancy. Your comments & feedback are welcome. Please email me your thoughts.

These rods are available right now. please Go to the "Available rods" page for more details:

There are currently no available rods for sale. I will be adding more rods here very soon, so please be sure to check back often. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me to inquire about the next rods to be listed & with any other questions you might have.

hand stitched leather accessories

Cases, bags, & other fine heirloom quality leather angling accessories.

NEW!! SEE MORE ROD PHOTOS!!!

Please visit my Flickr pages to see even more rod photos including those available for sale, different rod features, & more. I'll be continuing to add photos there, so check it often.

Watch Some Videos!!

Take a look into the rod shop & see some rods in living color motion pictures!! Check out my youtube videos.

the pliant rod: