Dickerson Rods I have known Part IV

Originally written by me and some friends 2002-04 for the Virtual Fly Shop, Flyfisherman Magazine Online. The Cracker Barrel has been published in book form with the limited first edition hard cover sold out and a paperback version will be available early 2011.

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fishnbanjo
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Dickerson Rods I have known Part IV

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Post by fishnbanjo »

Welcome to the Cracker Barrel, last time we finished the 3
parts of the series discussing the 7613. It would be wrong to simply jump into
another model without a bit of history of how my collection came about since it
will help you understand my focus which is not in being a collector.  Well the stove has been cut back and the
coffee pot is ready so let’s continue.

I already had some nice rods prior to purchasing the 7613,
in fact until the 7613 my go to rod was the 101 clone since it felt like an old
friend that I could rely on. That statement is what my collection is in a
nutshell, i.e. a bunch of old friends that are a joy to be with. It never was
my intent to be a collector in the sense of how some folks view collectibles,
i.e. an investment. Sure the rods I have literally are an investment but that
was/is not the main focus which is a collection of fishable rods. In other
words I basically purchased rods to educate myself, specifically homing in on
pieces in original condition since they would become the benchmark of being
able to differentiate a rod being restored or refinished.

Having said all that my next purchase was another Dickerson
and this time it was a rod restored by Jim Schaaf. It had its original bag but
the tube had been lost by a previous owner and Jim replaced it with one he used
to use which could not be passed as a Dickerson tube but was a good tube for
the rod a 9016.

The purpose of purchasing a restored rod was to get a better
feel for the differences in how the wraps appear since Jim did have original
Dickerson silks but used Champion silk on the 9016 and it was easy to see these
were not original, the color match was excellent as was the wrap work and
varnish, which kept the original Dickerson script intact. The difference
between Dickerson’s wraps and the Champion wraps is the Dickerson wraps give
the appearance of a solid color where with the Champion there was a highlight
in the silk that seems to spiral around the wraps, this wasn’t immediate
visible and only showed when the rod was at a certain angle and I have since
picked it out on other rods where Champion silk was used.

The 9016 was an outstanding 7 wt Landlocked Salmon and Grilse;
it also handled a 6 DT very well for Green Trout (Smallmouth Bass) work and large
trout. I never felt the rod overly long as it fished smaller than 9’ but had a
lot of backbone and could handle some long line when needed and it currently
makes its owner very happy as he chases Green Trout and Shad with it.

Like any other addiction one may have you tend to lust for
more of what feeds your addiction and bamboo fly rods are addicting for me.
Seeing what I had for rods I knew that the only way to feed the need for a rod
was to sell some of what I already had or trade it and that is how I got the
9016 by trading 2 other rods for it. This continued with my next Dickerson the
8014 Guide.

One can speak about Dickerson rods being scarce in any
condition and they would be correct since it’s estimate that Dickerson made in
the neighborhood of 1200-1300 rods in his career by Schaaf and Stein were only
able to find 335 while researching for the Dickerson book. They found 29 7613
models and the one I wrote about earlier was not among them so it was
unaccounted for. The 9016 model shows 47 were made and 15 were found and the
8014 Guide shows 9 were made and all 9 were accounted for including one made in
1951 that had gone unfished and is now in the collection of a west coast fly
fisher.

Any Dickerson rod is an experience but the 8014 Guide is an
epiphany. It has the distinction of being more than one rod and I’ll give
examples a bit later. I loved casting the 8014 Guide, be it relaxed casting in
close or 35’-45’ and it just worked like a steady companion then you could work
out that 35’ or more and double the line length without false casting all you
had to do was lift the line, back cast, have what line you wanted to add ready
to shoot and boom it was where you wanted it to go, this was the intent of this
model.

The 8014 Guide was designed for the guides on the big rivers
in Michigan who maneuvered their sports with bateau’s, the guide boat specific
to Michigan. The generally dragged chains to act like sea anchors to get the
drift and time they need to allow a sport to cast over rising fish. The guide was
very busy looking for risers, maneuvering the bateau around rocks and river debris
and when the occasion presented itself cast to a fish. The guide usually had a
mere instance to try for a fish perhaps 60’, 65’, 70’ or more and only one cast
before they were past their opportunity and the 8014 Guide performed this need
with elegance and aplomb.

I can recall one fishing trip in particular; we had
completed the Farmington River portion of the trip and were headed for the much
larger big water of the Housatonic in CT and by big it was expansive, there
were sections where you had more backcast room than you could provide line for
and the same was true for your forecast.

We were staying at one of the local motels near the Housy,
as it is affectionately referred to, there were three in our group at the motel
with one more to join us for the day and five more to complete our party.

I have always been an early riser due to the fact my job
called for me to be there at an early hour so finding me awake when the phone
in the hotel rang was not a surprise but the conversation that followed when I
answered the phone sure was. I picked up the phone and said “hello” and I heard
“who is this?” I immediately replied with “it’s 4:00 a.m. and you called me,
who is this?” “It’s Andre’ is this banjo” came the response. “Yes, where are
you”, “I’m on the way, what’s the name of the place again”  I told him the name, and the route, and that
we’d all be on the lawn having coffee and he’d have a hard time missing us and
telling us he was perhaps 15-18 miles away would be here shortly. I hung up the
phone and the three of us went out on the lawn to await his arrival.

It was just about 4:30 when we saw headlights approaching
and the vehicle was coming at a rapid pace and moments later Andre flew past us
doing about Mach 3. Rolf looked at me and said “somebody better get to the
phone because he’s going to call in a few minutes” Rolf headed back to the
motel room and sure as rain Andre called and said he couldn’t find us and Rolf
told him he went by us 5 minutes ago and to turn around and come back and we’d
be standing on the lawn with coffee cups raised. Seven minutes later he goes by
us again going about Mach II but obviously saw three guys with coffee cups in
the air and hit the brakes to turn around.

Andre pulls into the parking lot as the sun was just peeking
over the horizon and just in time to do some casting before breakfast. As is
the case when a few of us get together there are always new rods to share and
old friends to revisit and this was no different. Cloozoe decided to have one
of his Lucky Strikes and went up to the rise by the motel to watch us cast
while he had a smoke. I was unlimbering the 8014 Guide and was casting a very
nice long line when Cloozoe said “banjo, while you are ordinarily a rather fine
caster that rod you are using makes you look like Jon Tarantino, what are you
casting?” “It’s the 8014 Guide” I said “I’m thinking of selling it”, “have you
fished it” said Cloozoe. “No, never had water that I could use it on which is
why I’m thinking of selling it”, “you will today, the Housy is big water with
big fish, why not fish it today” said Cloozoe. “I’ll think about that while we’re
having breakfast and waiting for the others to show up” and we broke down the
rods and headed up to breakfast.

With breakfast behind us and the rest of our party joining
us we packed up, checked out of the hotel and wound our way to where we would
be fishing. The Housy is a big river and Streamer gave us some ideas as to
where to fish so we broke up and set a time where we would take a break and
meet for lunch.

I try to absorb as much of what nature provides while doing
anything outdoors and saw some white tail deer and a large flock of wild
turkey. The section I was fishing was around 125’ from one side of the bank to the
other side and I was out perhaps 35’ from my side of the river when I spotted
fish rising outboard of the opposite bank 80’-90’ away so I began casting to
them and got one to take which I fumbled immediately and lost. I decided to
rest the fish until it began to feed again, changed my fly and did a bit of
blind fishing while waiting.

The fish became active again about 25 minutes later and I
decided I’d try again to let loose a cast and sent a drift through only to see
it rise about 5’ closer to the bank. I watched the rises for the next 15
minutes trying to figure out the fish’s rhythm.

I saw the drift boat up river and figured it has seen me
casting to fish since my bright orange line would be pretty hard to miss so I
didn’t expect to find it right where I had been casting but that’s what was
happening as the guide dropped anchor and pointed his sport toward the bank
less than 20’ from where they were anchored.

To say I was fuming would be an understatement and to make
matters worse the damn fish began to rise just outboard of the anchored drift
boat with the guide and his sport unaware of them. I decided to go with the old
adage of when you have lemons you make lemonade. I laid out what I felt was the
right amount of line for a cast and let loose only to find I was about 10’
short of my quarry. I picked up the line, lengthened it in the backcast and
shot to where I figured to fish would rise when I heard a distinctive thump as
the fly hit the drift boat.

The guide looked up as he must have heard the thump but was
not able to ascertain where it had come from and he was pointing toward the
bank and encouraging his sport, who was not a very good caster, to cast toward
it. I had finished my drift and went through the motions of lifting the line
off the water and repeating the thump on the side of the drift boat and was
beginning to chuckle to myself as I repeated this over and over until I had
shed some of my pent up anger of the guides poor choice of anchoring where I
was fishing. The last thump was followed by another hit on the fish but the
hook parted from its mouth while it was airborne and the resounding splash it
made when it hit the water got the guides attention and then he saw my fly line
near his boat so I waved to him and I think he was probably fuming now and went
to the outboard, fired it up, weighed anchor and was off to a new section of
the big water of the Housy.

We were having sandwiches and Cloozoe asked if I were still
thinking of selling the 8014 Guide, I looked at him and said “it’s not for
sale, we bonded today”. Well the coffee pot is empty and this concludes this
segment of the Cracker Barrel, be with us next time as we discuss more
Dickerson rods I have known.

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