Weight Training

  Last month I made the 5-hour trip to the northeast corridor of Texas to pick up the items that my now deceased friend gifted me in his will. Among many other items were five factory built AllStar 11wt. fly rods. still in the original packaging. As many of you know, I was and still am a HUGE fan of the Austin series, and the 10/11wt. was Dr. Tebbett's weapon of choice for Tarpon in the Florida Keys. A few days after I returned home, I also discovered that there were half a dozen unopened SA Mastery Tapron Taper lines in the appropriate line weights as well. Not being able to resist the call...I strung up a reel and proceeded to step out into the yard and give the ol' Austin a spin. Not only did casting this rod bring back great memories of the first Tarpon I ever jumped, but it also brought back great memories of my friend with whom I shared many great experiences both on and off the water.

  The rod was exactly as I remembered; strong, very powerful, not the lightest compared to today's standards, but certainly weight appropriate for its day. I was also struck by the high level of workmanship that the rod displayed. Over my 30 years in the custom rod business, I have heard many builders be hyper critical and in many cases downright derogatory about the quality of workmanship on factory rods. The fact of the matter is that given that many of these factories are producing 10,000 or more rods a year. So, my position has always been that although there may be minor cosmetic anomalies, it's pretty incredible that most of the high-end fly rods built today look as great as they do!

After about 30 minutes of launching the SA 11wt. line across the yard, I set the Austin down and pulled another of John's rods out of his quiver...a SAGE RPL 8wt. I was stunned at how easily I was throwing 100-110' feet of line with this 30 year old taper. Then it dawned on me... it wasn't the rod! When I was throwing the 11wt, I was essentially training with a weighted bat much like baseball players do. Many golfers do this as well to develop swing speed. This is obviously nothing new, and honestly, I probably would have stumbled across this years ago, except for the fact that I just have never had a reason to own anything bigger than an 8wt or 9wt.

  So now, not only do I have an excuse to practice with John's gear to honor my old friend, but that ol' Austin now serves a very practical and functional purpose in my distance training regimen!

Hope you all are having a great week,

Andy