[Eddie Sinclair]

A wee while ago a few of us were talking about our first fly rods. When I was at primary school (yes a wee while ago, I am retiring next Friday😂) my grandad bought me a 9 foot milbro trufly 6/7 weight.

This prompted me to try and find one for sale. I saw one in great nick on E bay but I have never used this method of purchase before so in stepped Euan who many of you know and he got the rod for me. I picked it up yesterday and my god is it soft compared to todays weapons of choice, but I am going to put a line through it and see if I can get a trout or two on it. It’s a weird thing nostalgia but I was a wee boy again waggling this noodle like rod. Can’t wait to take it out for a play.

Thanks Euan for the help.

What was other peoples first fly rods?

Eddie

[Graham Ritchie]

My one was the slightly shorter model, the 8 1/2ft #6/7 Milbro fibreglass. I still have it and it casts a surprisingly good line still.

[Sandy Nelson]

A Milbro fiberglass 8’6” 5/6 was my first fly rod.
It was my 11th birthday present. Mine was the metallic grey/blue one with metal ferrules. I learned to cast with it (Grandad and Mum) and caught my first fish on a fly I tied (I actually had my first flytying kit the Christmas before and no one to teach me)

The original met with an untimely accident in the spokes of bike wheel in my late teens.

A few years ago I tracked down a mint one and added it to my collection. It’s not quite the real thing but it evokes some very real memories and is actually quite nice to take fishing.

 

[Eddie Sinclair]

Ace three Mibro glass rods. They must have been really popular back in the day.

Can’t wait to see what others had.

Cheers,

Eddie

[Fred Hay]

My first fly rod was a 9ft greenheart which my father managed to acquire second hand from a local angler - possibly made by local angler Alex Tosh who was renowned back then for making rods, tying flies and supplying all sundry items to local anglers.
But I've no idea what the make was nor the line rating but the line was a level silk line and the rod came to a tragic end cycling home one night and I somehow managed to stick it the spokes of my bike - end of !!
Like the others I then graduated to a Milbro Trufly 9ft and I believe that it is still in the garage ..... won't be digging out it out though.

[Jeremy Bennett]

Mine came from Woolworths! Cant remember too much about other than it was built cane and had a reversable handle si it was either a fly rod or coarse fishing rod.
Father (exiled Scot) and older brother fished a stretch of the River Nene which was a stocked fishery. I then graduated to hand me downs with the next rod being a 9 ft 6 weight Pezon Michel Parabolic Special which I still have.

[Mike Barrio]

Can't remember mine having a brand name, it was glass, a kind of amber yellow, and I picked it up in a second hand shop in Christchurch in the early 70s 🙂

Cheers
Mike

[Jim Eddie]

Mines was also fibreglass, don't recall the details.  My father bought it for me in a tackle shop, whose name I don't recall just off George Square, circa mid 60's.
I still have it in the garage somewhere, last outing for the rod was from the float tube at Haddo some years ago.
Enjoy your retirement Eddie

 

Jim

[Eddie Sinclair]

Jim,

I am looking forward to retirement. There are four small people (grandkids) who are just starting out on their fly fishing journey and it will be a lot of fun being there with them without interruption from work.

Eddie

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

I didn't start fly fishing until the early 2000's. My first flyrod was a Shakespeare Expidition 10ft 7wt, bought as part of a combo that Somer's matched from Trout and Salmon. It came with a Dragon Fly cassette reel. The reel is still going strong, unfortunately a friend managed to break the tip section.

[Hamish Young]

........ I am retiring next Friday

Really  

The first fly rod I recall having use of was an Edgar Sealey split cane of about 9.5ft with a non-descript fly line that sometimes floated. A few hand me downs came after that, but my first new fly rod I actually have to this day - well, its counterpart at least. My Dad and I used to visit the fishing tackle shop in East Kilbride when we lived near Eaglesham. We bought two Shakespeare radial Carbon 11' fly rods for out adventures on the West Coast, alas mine came to an end on the banks of the Don many, many seasons after its purchase, but my Dad still had his, which I hope to recommission for next year.

[Eddie Sinclair]

Good stuff H, and yes I really am retiring this time on New Year’s Eve.

Eddie

[Steven Kidd]

Hi Eddie,

Enjoy your well deserved retirement.

My first rod was a 10ft 6/7wt Shakespeare carbon fly, a dark green blank as I remember with a light green thread X wrap all the way up the blank.  My dad got me it from Scrimengours tackle shop in Falkirk along with a barbour bag, when I was around 12 years old.  I had a fast sink line for reservoirs, (built up some serious muscle that rod / line combo)..

I still have that bag and remember at the time it cost £28.00.........nowadays, they are serious cash, £200-£300.

Steven

[Eddie Sinclair]

Cheers Steven, looking forward to handing back the laptop and the phone tomorrow morning.

And yes prices are mental these days. I remember the first hardy smuggler in a wooden display case with two hardy reels. At the time I thought no way am I paying £300 for that. How wrong was I?

Tight lines,

Eddie.

[Bob Mitchell]

Started over 70 years ago with an old tank aerial and then got a solid glass fly rod. Still have them and can not imagine how i ever fished with them. In those days it was only about a rod length of line you cast stalking your fish.  Reading the other replies the name  Parabolic  brought back a lot of memories. Used to work in a tackle shop in West George Street Glasgow. This small thin man came in one day to show us his range of parabolic rods. We went into the lane behind the shop and he had a 6 foot wand built cane parabolic and proceed to cast a whole  kingfisher line with no effort. Reading his book A Fly Fishers life by Charles Ritz the other week brought it all back to me.
Bob.

[Kav Ring]

I did a bit of fly fishing as a teenager (only caught chub) although tried at Farmoor a few times. I had a Shakespeare Sigma rod (not sure on the weight) I also had a Shakespeare Blackly. I remember it being really soft so maybe it was a glass? Would love to try one now!
On my return to fishing I bought a Guideline stoked 8wt kit as was planning on coastal fishing then Covid hit and I was stuck in Oxford, found a trout water and a whole new hobby/obsession 

[Iain Stewart]

I canna mind the make (will need to look it out) but a 7.5ft split can rod was my first rod that I borrowed off my dad. My first owned rod was an old Greenheart Trout Rod I got from a antique shop in Edinburgh and though I was archie,  that lasted me till I could afford a modern fibreglass rod which was a McHardy of Carlisle. Could my first salmon on that rod on the 'Awn'.