Sunday, December 18, 2016

Anatomy of a thrift-store score

Just returned from my neighborhood Value Village this Sunday morning.  See if you can guess what I found.







It's an 8'6" Montague Flash bamboo fly rod from the 1940s!  It comes with a tough canvas case, and an extra tip section.  All ferrules and guides are rock solid.  I have modern Orvis reels and line that match its weight.

Whoever donated this rod, whoever's grandfather's estate this came from, out there in the aether, please know that I will give it loving care and maintenance, and that this rig will catch fish again, as soon as this next year.

I started tossing and tying the dry fly in the Midwest in my youth, catching bluegills and the occasional bass.  Once I could drive, I could get north of Green Bay to cold water streams like the Oconto River, to chase rainbow trout and stalk browns.  Now I live in the western WA, where the world is my oyster.  I think I could even catch oysters with this thing.

But I never thought I could own a bamboo rod, which new today cost as much as a used car.  Have we turned a new corner in Trump's America?  I think so.

16 comments:

christiangustafson said...

In WA, many of the streams are restricted to fly-rod tackle only, usually with barbless hooks.

Those caught violating the WA DNR rules are subject to summary execution.

TSE said...

"Those caught violating the WA DNR rules are subject to summary execution".

Perhaps as it should be. Taking the King's fish without a license is strictly forbidden.

That said, last year I traveled down the Coast and watched the Yurok's harvesting Salmon on the Klamath, especialy at the Coastline. I noted that they were performing special ceremonial rites and that, as I traveled the highway inland, signs were posted by the USFS warning that arrest, imprisonment and fines awaited anyone who ventured, at that time, down to the Klamath River, without express permission from the Yurok's.

I aso noted that the Natives were not particularluy friendly, and especially in the area near Happy Camp, had defaced Stop signs to read "USFS STOP HARRASSING". At my camp near Willow Springs, I was warned by USFS Hotshots that the Natives were indeed unfriendly. Naturally, I was at Willow Springs to see Bluff Creek - just outside of Yurok Tribal land and where the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage was shot, since I am a BIGFOOT Believer.

https://youtu.be/Us6jo8bl2lk

I also made sure to visit Bigfoot Books in Willow Springs and bought a number of Bigfoot and UFO related books.

http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy your new fishing tackle!

Wisconsin "spoiled me" be planting Pacific Salmon in the Great Lakes - Enjoy your new tackle!

Anonymous said...

4.99!? Unbelievable. I doubt they knew what they had. I love it when that happens. There are probably people who would pay 40-50 dollars for it. A friend of my wife once gave her an antique flatware set, that belonged to her grandmother. Take a guess what that was made of? Sterling silver! I don't think they realized what it was. I about fell over when she brought it home. Sometime in 2010 I took it to a local gold/silver dealer, and they promptly gave me a 1000 dollars for it!

Anonymous said...

Brace yourselves, this could be quite shocking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/business/imf-trial-christine-lagarde-france-verdict.html?_r=0


Anonymous said...

The only issue so far that I can find with Caldero's comparison of the market with the 49-66 time frame is PE ratio. Absolutely no comparison there.

Bryan Franco said...

Hugh. You make an important point. Interest rates were similar, yet pe was in the single digits vs mid 20s now.

Anonymous said...

He doesn't seem to think it's an important issue. If it's not, I'm not smart enough to figure out why. It seems to me the PE ratio would need to be closer to 20 than 30, to have a nearly trouble free decade run. The last two bull runs we had that went much higher, from a similar PE both ended fairly quickly/badly. This really looks a lot like the late 90's to me.

TSE said...

Looks like SFV has taken on another cloak of invisibility:

Put another way, dollar preference is the convergence between the value of the oil capital and the dollars that are exchanged for it. Fuel by itself is worth more than the real-world enterprises that make use of it regardless of what means are used to ‘adjust’ the price. By this way of reasoning, fuel in the ground in North Dakota is worth more than fuel wasted in a car stuck in traffic on an LA Freeway.

Business (wasting) enterprises earn nothing on their own and are essentially worthless. They exist solely to borrow, gaining- and making use of credit is their primary product: other goods and services are intended to justify credit issuance in ever-increasing amounts. Part of this stream becomes the property of well-positioned ‘entrepreneurs’: enormous unearned borrowed profits are what drives the system. When debt = wealth, there is an incentive to take on as much debt as possible, keep what you can for yourself and to shift the retirement- and servicing burdens onto others.

Our economy as nothing more than a vast cost-shifting regime.

http://www.zerohedge.com/gimenews/2016-12-24/shifting-power-visualizing-worlds-largest-cities-last-6000-years

Note: Cost shifting to an extent = sharing. Until it becomes exploitation, it is an actual benefit.

https://youtu.be/-C-jXJl0Zrg

************************

So the FED is manipulating numbers to benefit a civilization based upon waste.

SO WHAT?!!!

Americans liberally waste themselves with alcohol, tobacco, corn syrup, government sponsored lottery and outlawed drugs.

Profusely.

Enjoy the manipulation from the Masters.

The reason for the Season is in the STARS: https://youtu.be/pTbIu8Zeqp0

TSE said...

Just remember - CG - that you weren't "fishing" - you were foraging for food for something to put in your stomach.

Preferably without tools produced by Modern Industrial Civilization.

To limit your liability - no doubt.

https://youtu.be/_LwR0c-CE5g

TSE said...

If the ZH link doesn't work - try this:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/shifting-power-visualizing-worlds-largest-cities-last-6000-years

Anonymous said...

Speaking of PE. Anyone know the PE of the RUT?

TSE said...

In a year that has claimed the lives of some of the most prolific and visible musical talents of more than one generation, including Prince and David Bowie, it is morbidly fitting that the man who gave us "Last Christmas", George Michael, passed away on Christmas Day, "peacefully at home" according to his publicist.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-25/singer-george-michael-dead-53

https://youtu.be/Yf_Lwe6p-Cg

christiangustafson said...

I don't know about George Michael's HIV status, but in the notorious documentary on "gift-givers" and "bug-chasers" a pair of older homosexuals lament the seemingly insane behavior of the youth with respect to this disease, and explain that the retroviral drugs that save them from AIDS have the side-effect of eventual heart-failure.

Is that still true re these therapies? Have you seen this mentioned in any MSM coverage?

This edited excerpt from the documentary (NSFW!) is of course one of the founding documents of the post-libertarian right.

Anonymous said...

For years I bought into the narrative, that gay men generally were just normal people, who happened to be attracted to other men. That might be the case with a few. Over time I realized that the majority of them are deeply troubled, and this is not just a result of living in a society that "rejects" them. Society is more tolerant of homosexuals now than ever, almost to the point of totalitarian. Alcohol and drug abuse is very common. My guess is nearly all of them were molested/abused by an adult male when younger. That video actually makes me sad to be honest, not an emotion I feel often. Some of those young men seem decent. How could they participate in something so vile? There's some internalized anger/aggression there, that never found a healthy outlet. BTW, I thought gay guys were supposed to be in good shape? I could out bench press everyone I saw in that video, and that's not saying much. Sad!

Anonymous said...

OMG, look what somebody did!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gardner_(politician)


Anonymous said...

Whaa, whaaaa! The Russians interfered in our election!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh