Herters rod

[Roper]

Cleaning out the closet in my den I found my father’s old bamboo rod. It’s in decent shape but I know nothing about it.

The rod is two piece 8’ 6” with two tip sections. It’s marked as follow:

RVIJVF-100
HDH or C bamboo
W8T 3.50 oz
16/64 ferrule

I have the aluminum tube and intact sock with Herters tag.

what can anyone tell me about it? What weight equivalent is it?

 

[Bambooflyguy]

HDH is a modern 6 wt fly line. Nice rod, I’d try a 5 wt dry line lawn casting and go up from there. Fish it!

 

[Michael1227]

HDH=DT6 (HDG=WF6), C=a level 7wt.

 

[kmudgn]

My experience is that DT lines perform better with cane, but not so much that you should not fish with a WF if that is what you have

 

[Bambooflyguy]

I fish both WF and DT Cortland Sylk on bamboo, cast what you have......

 

[Dave Westburg]

The rod looks in pretty good shape. The darker cane and maroon wraps remind of my Sharpes of Aberdeen bamboo rods. Saw a post on the classic fly rod forum that said Sharpes might have made some of Herters bamboo rods.

String it up and fish it Roper. You might need to slow down your casting stroke. Don't point your rod straight up and create an upside down J-bend when you are playing one of your huge eastern washington trout or you might come to grief. And make sure to let the rod dry out on a desk overnight after you've fished it. If a bamboo rod goes into permanent storage when it's wet is molds and is ruined.

Now you have an excuse to come to our next Bamboo fling.

406 out of Montana makes my favorite lines for bamboo. Cortland Sylk is good too.

3.8 ounces seems light for an 8'6" bamboo rod. Most of my 8'6" bamboo rods are 4.75 ounces.

 

[Cliff]

That's nice looking Boo. I wonder who made these rods for Herters.

 

[Roper]

The rod looks in pretty good shape. The darker cane and maroon wraps remind of my Sharpes of Aberdeen bamboo rods. Saw a post on the classic fly rod forum that said Sharpes might have made some of Herters bamboo rods.

String it up and fish it Roper. You might need to slow down your casting stroke. Don't point your rod straight up and create an upside down J-bend when you are playing one of your huge eastern washington trout or you might come to grief. And make sure to let the rod dry out on a desk overnight after you've fished it. If a bamboo rod goes into permanent storage when it's wet is molds and is ruined.

Now you have an excuse to come to our next Bamboo fling.

406 out of Montana makes my favorite lines for bamboo. Cortland Sylk is good too.

3.8 ounces seems light for an 8'6" bamboo rod. Most of my 8'6" bamboo rods are 4.75 ounces.

I’m taking it to the Spring Fling, wish I had an old Medalist to pair with it…thanks for the advice.

 

[Dave Westburg]

I’m taking it to the Spring Fling, wish I had an old Medalist to pair with it…thanks for the advice.

A medalist would be just the thing.

 

[Roper]

Yesterday I went outside to try casting the rod. It was okay with a 5 weight line but really shined with a 6. The balance and grip shape is really different. It took a bit to get used to it and slowing down my stroke helped. It will be interesting to see how it will play a fish.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Yesterday I went outside to try casting the rod. It was okay with a 5 weight line but really shined with a 6. The balance and grip shape is really different. It took a bit to get used to it and slowing down my stroke helped. It will be interesting to see how it will play a fish.

Cheers

 

[Islander]

Give it a test on one of those pigs at the Fling, should be a hoot!
There are usually some older Medalist reels on eBay. I might even have one in a box somewhere, I’ll check.

 

[Roper]

Looking through old boxes of my father’s stuff I found these, 1495 reel and spool. They’re odd to me as I’m LH retrieve and it’s RH. And it clunks on retrieve, is that normal?

 

[Salmo_g]

Yes, Medalists are clunky.

 

[Mike Monsos]

I think you can move the line guard to the opposite side to make it a LH retrieve.

 

[Tom Butler]

I think you can move the line guard to the opposite side to make it a LH retrieve.

And also turn over the round black piece inside under the brass holder with two screws. Lots of videos. There is a spring and other tiny piece under there, so be careful. I run mine left hand wind. The clunks are different LH, further apart if I recall correctly.

 

[Roper]

Turning over the piece was easy enough but now I realize the spools are wound for RH retrieve. That makes for backwards winding to retrieve. Now I need to decide if it’s worth replacing the backing and line…

 

[RCF]

Of course it is worth the effort . What is a few minutes to add hours of fishing pleasure with a family treasure?

 

[Islander]

Turning over the piece was easy enough but now I realize the spools are wound for RH retrieve. That makes for backwards winding to retrieve. Now I need to decide if it’s worth replacing the backing and line…

I have a line winder I can bring to the fling. Makes it easy off and back on the other direction.

 

[krusty]

Quite the nostalgic flyrod! In my boyhood Herter's catalogs (outlandish bits of outdoor lore no doubt crafted over whiskey and cigars by copy-writers with little to no actual outdoor experience) provided endless lust for their 'woods-proven' products in readers like myself. I still have some of the once arcane flytying tools I acquired from Herter's over 60 years ago.