Who's not afraid to admit it!

I recently added the new 6.5ft 4/5wt Eagle Claw Featherlight to my collection. Haven't had it on the water yet but it lawn casts really nice.

If a rod pleases me it matters now how much I paid for it.

Ain't that the truth. Just wish others saw it that way.
FWIW, I started on an EC back in the late 60's. The new one I bought really stinks imo. I should mention it's the $14 butt over tip one I got a few years back. It hinges worse than my back yard gate and it has different sized eyes on it. Not in graduating sizes either.
I did hear the latest re-incarnation is much better than the one I have.


Alan

Here's the latest Eagle Claw I've just added to my collection, a 5 1/2ft, 5wt Featherlight in near mint condition. Though it's not the highest regarded rod, it's nonetheless a pretty rare beast. Can't wait to string it up and give it a cast.

You've motivated me. I think I am going to get Featherlight and a 1492 and go to town this summer!

Welcome to the club! :thumb: You'll be pleasantly surprised what ~ $25 buys. The 1492 will go great with the 7fter. I like something just a tad lighter on the 6.5fter, like an old Martin Tuna Can or Horrcks-Ibbotson Sportcraft 60.

I've actually thought about getting one just for the heck of it. But I never seem to run across them anywhere.

My dad had some Eagle Claw fly rods. I did my first fly fishing with them. For some reason I remember one or two of them were white. Is my memory faulty, very likely, or did Eagle Claw make white rods also. This would have been back in the late fifties, early sixties.

I'm no authority on these old rods, but the only white colored rod I'm aware of from back in the day were Shakespeare Wonderods. I see them from time to time.

Starting in the mid-60's sometime and through 1972, Wright & McGill/Eagle Claw made a 7ft solid glass fly rod, the Panfish PF-7 that was white with brown wraps. Could that have been it?

About half way down the page there's a picture of an older Wright McGill Panfish with rainbow wraps from the 1950's...

http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/topic/14904/Solid-Glass-Fly-Rods#.Tgyy7c25Tuw

My dad's old rods could have been Panfish PF-7s. It was so long ago and I was less then 10 years old at the time, so I could be way off on my memories. I do wish I still had some of that old equipment. Some of my best memories of growing up are of fishing with my father and the rest of my family.

Just got mine off the the FedEx truck, strung it up and casted it in the yard. I like the way it casts I think it will work for the close quarters fishing I'll be doing this weekend!!!!

Which rod did you get?

I got the 6' 6" 4/5 WT, paired it with a Pflueger 1774 and some old line I had laying around. Casts suprising well, going to try it out on the water this afternoon.

I still have a Wright & McGill Trailmaster 6' 9" six-piece pack fly rod. It still has the Eagle Claw round plastic emblem, with the fish-clutching soaring eagle, on the handle. It's a beautiful honey brown color, with a bare aluminum Granger covered screwlock reel seat. Part of the cork is missing, reshaped with a file and sandpaper. While backpacking through the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, nearly 40 years ago, a noise in the night wakened me. The flashlight beam showed a porcupine gnawing on the sweaty handle, where I'd leaned the rod against a tree after fishing the alpine lake.

The rod hasn't gotten a lot of use, because the requirement for a seven-weight line doesn't go with mountain trout. Also, five metal ferrules doesn't make for a silky smooth action.

I love the little rod. I landed a cutthroat, a rainbow, and a cutbow on it this afternoon, now I need to find a couple more. Tried it today on some bigger water with a steady wind....more than exceeded my expectations.

My present W&M/Eagle Claw Featherlight collection...L to R 8ft(1), 7ft(1), 6.5ft (8), 6ft(1), 5 1/2ft(2)