I caught my first trout on a fly rod in south central Pennsylvania. The lush valley with its limestone streams was different enough from suburban Virginia to be aesthetically enchanting to an otherwise distracted teenager. Closer streams with less challenging trout were an option. But I was smitten. Without any ties aside from a few fish and the beginnings of a library whose authors hailed from the Cumberland Valley, I had home waters away from home.
I didn’t get to meet Charlie Fox or Vince Marinaro. I didn’t get a chance to fish some of the oft-mentioned spring creeks that succumbed to pollution or development. But there was enough left by the late 90’s: people and places, both. I began to accumulate whatever I could. Books, mostly. Also pieces of tackle, articles, and photographs. More memorable were those conversations. Streamside chats, a few dedicated minutes at conservation banquets, and, once I moved to New England, phone calls.
“The last 50 or so rods I built were on Lamiglass blanks,” Ed Shenk told me. I had asked him about rod building; specifically making his little “Flea” rods. It was one of our last conversations. “Before that there were Grizzly fiberglass blanks and the Conlin ‘Teeny Tiny’ blanks.”
I had never seen the latter two models. Until I was holding one – holding mine – in the summer of 2023.
