December 18, 2021

Granger Fishing Rods

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Fishing and Collecting the Oldies
Goodwin Granger and Wright and McGill Rod Businesses

My curiosity about bamboo fly rods began because of becoming introduced to my buddy's pastime of gathering old fishing lures. About decade ago, my younger brother showed myself their collection of old Heddon lures while I was seeing with him within my summer break from teaching. "they're getting hard to find around here anymore, " he stated. "Keep an eye out for these when you are home." With those parting terms, a virtual fixation with obtaining old fishing tackle began. For a while, I'd good luck with finding old lures for him. However, very quickly I also started to get totally hooked on the hobby. Because I experienced become a fan of fly fishing while going to graduate college in Idaho, we obviously ended up being drawn to vintage bamboo fly rods. The very first bamboo fly rods I acquired were a pair of lower-end production rods produced by Horrocks and Ibbotson. Their durability immediately became suspect when I noticed all of them had ideas that were damaged. My reservations about using bamboo rods had been strengthened when I broke a tip while untrue casting with a post-WWII Japanese rod that I experienced purchased at an antique go shopping for $30. I later discovered the bamboo found in these Japanese rods wasn't the Tonkin cane favored by most producers following the turn of the century. Instead, the cane utilized had been from an alternative species that is way more brittle than Tonkin cane. My opinion of this toughness of bamboo rods turned around 180 degrees once I traded my buddy several glass-eyed Heddon lures for a 9' design 9050 Granger Special fly rod made following the take-over by Wright and McGill. Even though the one tip ended up being brief by about an inch, we became fascinated by the rich brown color of its cane, the glassy finish, and its arrow-straight shafts. I really could tell straight away by flexing its tip that the toughness with this rod had been greatly not the same as the cane found in the bottom-of-the-line rods produced by businesses such as for example Montague, Horrocks and Ibbotson, as well as South Bend. [Authors note: this is not to say why these other programs didn't make good quality rods, a lot of their higher-end rods were built just as well as any of the classic pole manufacturers]. These days, i've no reservations about fishing any one of my Granger fly rods, even the large Rainbows when you look at the tailwater fisheries of this Missouri River that can develop because huge as Steelhead. Final summer time, I landed two Rainbow trout evaluating near to 2 weight each inside Ebony Hills of South Dakota on an 8 ' Wright and McGill Granger Special that many repair wraps due to misuse by a former owner. This pole, that I found lying under huge bucket of ice fishing tackle at an estate auction, emerged through without much as hook set. As fishing devices, Granger fly rods are considered by many people to-be more advanced than a number of the rods made by famous east businesses like the H.L. Leonard Rod business, E.W. Edwards & Sons, plus the Devine Rod Company. Eight base Grangers come in most demand with modern flyfishers, however their appeal has increased to the stage where they're not affordable towards the typical angler. The essential generally found rods of initial Goodwin Granger Company tend to be final generation designs with all the nickel-silver uplocking reel seat branded in 1938 (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Patented nickel-silver reel chair utilized on the majority of Granger rods found today. Previously rods will bear title of this initial Goodwin Granger Company, whereas later on people is stamped because of the name for the Wright & McGill. Both organizations stamped the reel seats using Apr. 12, 1938 patent date, although Goodwin Granger really started initially to utilize them a long period earlier. Notably harder locate are the chrome plated uplocking reel seating (fig. 2) that were offered before the beginning of WWII and stayed used up later on only the subscribed model. These plated reel seats were probably good searching whenever brand new, but cheapen the appearance of the pole after the plating begins to wear down with usage.
Fig. 2. Chrome-plated steel reel seat entirely on rods made just prior to WWII. These seats were in addition utilized later regarding the Registered model just. Their first generation rods, with a comparatively basic nickel-silver sliding musical organization reel chair are particularly difficult to get, but they are perhaps not thought to have because nice an action as their later rods. Second generation rods having a full nickel-silver sliding musical organization reel chair using model name stamped between two knurled groups (fig. 3) can still be found, and are still somewhat affordable in the 8 'and 9' lengths. Undoubtedly, these rods look like a bargain set alongside the price of a unique Orvis or Loomis graphite rod.
Fig. 3. Nickel-silver sliding band seat applied to middle era Goodwin Granger rods from the mid-1920's on late 1920's. This chair ended up being retained regarding the Champion design right through the time Wright and McGill dropped the model from their particular range. The Wright and McGill Rod business began leasing the Goodwin Granger Rod Company in 1946 and soon after took over full ownership of the business*. Wright and McGill's line of rods was basically the same as that the Goodwin Granger Rod business when they turned-over procedure of business. Starting with the most expensive model, their particular range included the Registered, Premier, Deluxe, Favorite, Aristocrat, specialized, Victory, plus the Champion. In 1947, Wright and McGill replaced the Champion using the Stream and Lake model*. This bottom-of-the-line model is one of affordable fly fishing rod when it comes to person planning to fish a Granger, but still gets the exact same high quality bamboo and hardware because their more expensive designs. In reality, apart from minor variations in the evenness and thickness associated with the whole grain of the bamboo, truly the only significant difference between their models was at along with associated with the wraps. Travel fishers and enthusiasts looking for a bargain need to keep a watch on for rods marketed under the name for the Old Faithful Rod Company. We very first discovered their particular rods once I discovered one out of a team of three rods that i purchased from people I met at a collector's marketplace. Really the only tagging in the rod had been Challenger. The address regarding initial tube that came with the pole had been 4th & give, Denver, Colorado. The cane had a vaguely familiar rich brown hue which was reminiscent of the Granger rods. We figured that with the target...

Source: flyanglersonline.com