I Love Fly Fishing - Where Do I Get Specialty Gear?

So you've fallen in love with the sport of fly fishing and have gotten tired of renting rods, reels, and line, and you're interested in picking up your own, specialty or custom-made gear.  Maybe you own some used rods and reels and want to trade up. Or maybe you're a collector of unusual fly fishing gear.  Either way, you've found yourself an interesting hobby.  The least we can do is give you an inkling of what's out there!

Antique Rods, Reels and Line

Fly fishing enjoys an exhaustive and fascinating history.

Though it was recently popularized by movies such as A River Runs Through It, fly fishing has roots in true antiquity.  Perhaps the earliest known references to fishing with a lure made to resemble a natural prey item come from around the third century AD, or about the year 200. 

Now, you're probably not going to be able to find an antique rod from Claudius Aelianus' time, when Macedonian people used long rods from which they dangled red-colored wool and feather flies on horsehair twine, but you can still get your hands on more recent incarnations of the fly fishing rod.  Before the 1800s, people constructed poles out of greenheart and bamboo, flexible types of wood that allowed for a lot of freedom in setting out casts.

It is possible to find horsehair and silk lines from a simpler time of fly fishing...and though they can be quite a pain to restore, you'll probably have a great time doing so!  Getting your hands on an antique set of lines worth saving, that hasn't deteriorated beyond all recognition, is surely a great find...and believe it or not, if you've restored the line itself, you can use it with your modern reels!

Reels were relatively primitive until the time of the Industrial Revolution, and even then they made casting and playing in fish difficult.  Looking in pawn shops, consignment shops or in old flea markets will probably do you well in searching for both antique rods and antique reels!

Specialty Rods

Currently, the most hotly sought-after types of specialty fly fishing gear are made out of bamboo.  Called "Calcutta," which has become a trade term in recent years, the particular type of bamboo used to make fly fishing rods is extremely strong, very resilient, and is very light.  Truly, it offers more versatility and more flexibility than steel, hard wood, or fiberglass, which is what you see in most fly fishing rods today.  The long process of growing, selecting, proportioning and gluing the wood makes each and every bamboo rod a treasure unto itself, split-cane or no.  This also makes them very expensive, but as most fly anglers will tell you, the price is well worth the results.

The best advice we can give is this: even if you know that you want specialty fly fishing gear, shop around!  Finding and purchasing the perfect rod, reel, line, or what have you is great – but doing so AND saving money is even better!