Tags
Abu, Ale, Bream, Brewery, Chiltern, Chub, Coarse Fishing, Dace, Featherweight, Hardy, J S Sharpe, Roach, Rod, Scottie, Vintage, Wheatley
Earlier today I was fortunate to take delivery of a J S Sharpe Scottie Featherweight 8ft #4 cane fly rod in fine used condition. The reality of it was that the rod was in fact 3.5 inches shorter than its original 8ft, none the less a very useable rod that I will try out on small rivers for silver fish whilst the trout season is still a couple of months away.
Some years ago I purchase an old Wheatley aluminium fly box that when opened revealed a host of tiny flies with the descriptor neatly written for silver fish. Each compartment indicating which fish the fly was suitable for, Dace, Roach, Rudd, Bream, Gudgeon and Grayling. This small box of flies has inspired me to use a light fly rod in pursuit of coarse fish. Maybe this recent acquisition could be just the tool.
I have previously owned a mint condition Sharpe Featherweight but sold it on to Thomas Turner the notable Traditional and Collectable Tackle Dealers. Having seen this one for sale on an online marketplace I thought I’d buy it and put it to good use. What I love about the Sharpes cane rods is the colour of the cane which seems darker than the Hardy cane rods. The colour of my rods are like a fine dark ale, similar a an able I tried the other day from The Chiltern Brewery, their Three Hundreds Dark Old Ale, a very pleasant 5% Gluten Free ale made in the Chiltern Hills.
The weather for the rest of this week isn’t too promising so I can’t see the rod being used for a few weeks. I will look to pair it to either a Hardy Lightweight reel or possibly a Featherweight.
Somewhere in the postal system is an Abu Cardinal 40 spinning reel making its way to me so I will be looking to compare the 4O to another Abu reel the 44x. Hopefully I will write up about these next week.