I used to watch his show every week with fishing buddy. We used to dream of using a flyrod for bass.

Thanks for posting the video. Looks like Gadabout's flyrod was a Shakespeare Wonder rod quick taper. Most likely the 8' 6" model. Those wonder rods used Shakespeare's patented Howald process. How's that for trivia? You can see the shakespeare label on the lower portion of his rod in the video.

IIRC when I turned 11 I bought a 8' 6" standard taper Shakespeare wonder rod (yes it was white). Used HCH weight forward floating line and a Pfluger reel. Began catching sunfish in Black Creek at Churchville park's dam near NY State Route 33.

Len and I learned not to blow up our flies and eventually made some our own. Well actually just one. An ant pattern without the hackle. We could wrap heavy black sewing thread on shank to make two humps. Then used Mom's clear nail polish to seal it. Sometimes we use some red nail polish on eye area. We would twitch it just under the surface. It never wore out and caught sunfish, small crappie and smallmouth bass!

Eventually we evolved to catching bass and sunfish on poppers in Honeoye and Conesus lakes.

Go forward to 1997. Best bass popper action of my life. Gadabout would have loved to have been there. I will admit I had upgraded my flyfishing equipment to a basic package from Orvis called the Rocky Mt. It was a 6 weight 9' using weight forward line. Still have the wonder rod but don't use it anymore.

Wife and I boat camped way up Lake Powell from Wahweap bay near the dam to well past Rainbow bridge. One day we went up the San Juan River. It opened up into a huge bay. We continued upstream to the second bay. Water was high, submerging rocks and brush. Smallmouths were in the shallows slashing at the popper. I caught well over 100 that morning. It will be a long time when the lake gets high enough to go that far up the San Juan.

I have fished for trout on the Madison many summers but nothing was quite like that popper action on the San Juan.

Last edited by Azshooter; 06/26/22.