The Riffle: 2nd Annual Twin Cities Glass Cast

As you may know, I am a huge fan of fiberglass fly rods. Preferably vintage, but modern glass rods have their place, as well. Other people I know feel the same as me, or, if not exactly the same, they at least think glass rods are cool, even if they still mostly fish with graphite. A bunch of us glass lovers recently got together for the 2nd Annual Twin Cities Glass Cast (that's just what I am calling it; it doesn't really have a name...) to try out each others' glass rods and have a bit of fun. And fun we had!

Much like the 1st Annual T.C.G.C., the 2nd Annual T.C.G.C. was made up of a relatively small group of guys, five to be exact. The only difference was that the 1st Annual had three Minnesotans and two Wisconsinites, and this most recent T.C.G.C. had three Wisconsinites (Ron, Brian, and Jon) and only two Minnesotans (Richard and me). Despite being outnumbered, we Minnesotans were treated respectfully by those from our neighboring state. That may be due in part to the fact that we brought the most rods with. And really, if people from Wisconsin are treating you with respect, who cares what the reason is!

The day started slowly, with each participant bringing out a rod or two. But then those rods made us think about other rods we wanted to show off. And then those rods got us thinking about other rods we wanted to show off. Pretty soon there were dozens of rods being uncased, waggled, and put to use. Rods were admired, cast, put down, then cast some more, then handed off for others to try. Then it would start all over again. Most of the rods were vintage pieces, a few were modern rods. All of them had to be cast by all of us, and then we would stand around and talk about how they felt and what we liked or disliked about them. There were old rods from Fenwick, Heddon, Shakespeare, Sage, Orvis, Winston and others. New rods from Epic, Echo and Fenwick. All of them were fun to try out and critique. It was a great time!

I don't know if there is going to be a 3rd Annual T.C.G.C., but if there is, you should try to wrangle yourself an invitation.