sold H.L. LEONARD 8’ ORIGINAL PRE-FIRE “HUNT” BAMBOO FLY ROD

H.L. LEONARD 8’ ORIGINAL PRE-FIRE “HUNT” BAMBOO FLY ROD            

This rod is a variation on Leonard’s familiar Model 50.  The Leonard Hunt rods have provoked a great deal of commentary.  See information on the internet and Marc Aroner’s discussion of Hunts on his web site.  Briefly, Leonard made Hunt pattern rods before the fire in trout and salmon models, and Tom Maxwell revived the name in the late years of production.  Leonard’s 1959 catalog says that the Hunt pattern dry fly rod is an 8’ rod with “dry fly action, stained bamboo, oxidized mountings.”  Most people recognize the original Hunt rods as having dark cane, blued reel seat and ferrules, and a somewhat quicker action than other model 50 rods.

Steve Blake restored this rod to its correct, original configuration.  Features aluminum up-locking reel seat over butternut, 5” cork grip, “china hat” winding check, Perfection stripper, blued steel snakes, ferrules with plugs, bag with handwritten date of 1961, correct 1 5/8” tube.  The bag tag is a recent replacement.  Rod weight is 4 ¼ ounces as marked and weighed on my scale. Ferrules are 16/64” and 10/64”.