Summer Musings

It is the weekend, Sunday in fact, and my projects have been completed. The lawn has been mowed, and the new air conditioner this recurring heat wave forced me to acquire has been installed and, well, cat proofed. I have tied a handful of that new jumbo-sized Light Touch Beetle whose debut turned into the morning of the season, since there was only a single fly remaining in my summer box. Oh, and I have been out casting rods.

I decided to fish my 7′-6″ Dennis Menscer four weight tomorrow and wished to try a couple of reels and lines. That rod is a rarity for Dennis I believe, for it is made to an uncommonly faithful Jim Payne taper for the renowned Model 100. I cast one once, at the Catskill Cane Revival in April of 2019, and promptly ordered one. As a rule, Dennis’ tapers are his own. In the course of his restoration work, he related that he had removed the varnish and then miked two separate Payne 100 rods which were made some 35 years apart. He smiled when he told me he found no more than 0.0005″ between the two at any point. Five ten thousandths – that is consistency, and the taper makes this a very sweet casting trout rod. He was so impressed he decided to offer his own model, using Payne’s original taper exactly as his micrometer measured.

Mine was christened on the Beaver Kill, once cool temperatures and the blessing of regular rainfall returned the great river to fly fishers, with a beautifully wild twenty-inch brown trout which sidled up to my Isonychia dry fly. Alas, since often I gravitate to eight-foot rods fishing our large trout rivers, it has not been fished in a while.

I was delighted to find that one of my vintage 3″ St. George reels, spooled with a 406 brand DT4 fly line is a perfect mate to this beautiful rod and it’s classic Catskill taper.

Lunchtime, and I can almost taste the fresh ham sandwich I’m thinking about. First, I’ll load these new beetles into my fly box, lest my sleepy head forget them in the morning…