Consumer Reports V21:100-107 March 1956
More proof I have no life; while at Central Library yesterday, for some odd reason I began going through the big books listing magazine articles from the late
40s & early 50s. In specific, I found myself looking under "Fishing Tackle."
I wrote down a couple of interesting numbers. The man at the desk said the only one not in the dormant stacks was
Consumer Reports of March 1956.
The cover was one of the most grossly posed fly fishing photographs I've ever seen in my life. But it was a simple
non-auspicious start to what proved to be an enjoyable read on the times.
What an amazing issue! "Chevrolet & Plymouth V-8s," "A Report on Trailer Living," "Medical
Report: Should your child get Salk vaccine?" "An FM car radio," "TV Remote Controls," and the subject of my interest: "Fly
Fishing Tackle."
The article starts with a nice essay on "why fly fishing." They conclude it's because fish are smaller,
fly fishing offers more sport, and people are less interested in filling the freezer. They also dismiss cane rods due
to quality and "prohibitive costs for top-quality rods." They conclude that glass rods have matured enough to
take over the market, and speculate on the demise of cane rods due to lack of cane from the China embargo.
With a photo of a properly dressed and equipped fly fisher {who looks like he should be in a military
recruiting advertisement}, CR spends a page mainly devoted to leaders {gut is on the way out-out-out}, fly lines, and what the mysterious "A,"
"D" & "Hs" of the past mean {fly line diameters}.
Almost another page is spent on the differences between manually operated reels and automatic reels, concluding in part, "Automatics do have the quality -
of questionable value except perhaps when one is fishing from a boat - of rapidly retrieving slack line when a fish is hooked." One disadvantage is "… the reel can rip the line through the guides so rapidly that the leader knot, or fly itself, could jam
against the top guide and snap off part of the tip section."
After providing a very good one page summary of what makes a fly rod work, CR thoroughly tested 20 glass rods by evaluating distances achieved, tip speed,
delicacy, and accuracy. In their ratings, they found "Acceptable - Good:" two Conolon's and two
Heddon's. In "Acceptable - Fair:" they first list a Montgomery Ward Sport King, then 14 more including
the venerable Shakespeare Wonder Rod." Only one rod is "Not Acceptable," a True Temper that was "…
judged unsuitable for any kind of fly casting …"
But what surprised me more were the manual fly reel ratings. Plueger Medalist 1495 and 1495 ½ were rated
"Acceptable - Excellent." In the following "Acceptable - Very Good" category were two Hardy St
George models, and two J.W. Young models. All four were sold through their American distributor, Charles F. Orvis
Co. My good old Pflueger Medalist 1492 rounds out the "Very Good" list, but doesn't rate a big check
mark.
The "Ratings of Automatic Reels for Fly Fishing" were hilarious to me {absolute proof I have no life}. Listed
were 11 models, all considered "Acceptable" including H-I, Martin, Shakespeare, South Bend, Heddon, Bronson, True Temper, and Montgomery Ward.
Why write this note? Well, while I'm not a tackle collector, if I was, I would see value in this article just for
information on the brands and models listed. I also enjoyed reading their "objective" summaries of the
various topics I addressed.
So my friends, simultaneously with the happy privilege of watching a moderate sized black dog with a big white eye blaze hunched up on a neighbor's lawn,
and not mine; I recommend that you consider adding this article to your collectable's literature. If you live far
from a good library, post me off line and I'll send a copy to the first three askers.
Joe Beelart
West Linn, Oregon
wctc1@comcast.net
