Mo’ Packing

The fly reels are wound thanks to 3 Rivers Fly Shop in Wasilla. Good job guys. 

I am definitely taking more reels than are needed on this adventure. I like old reels. I like old reels the way Imelda Marcos likes shoes (young people, Google her). The sound of a click-pawl drag against a machined aluminum housing Is beautiful music that few modern day fly fisherman will hear.  The art of palming a reel to brake a fish instead of relying on a disc-brake-drag designed by a general motors engineer is a lost art.

I’m taking four reels too many. Three of them are shown in the photo. One is an Orvis CFO III purchased in 1973 when I was 13 years old. I cut grass all summer for one dollar an hour to save up to buy it for $52 from a fly shop in Minneapolis. It’s one of the few sentimental things I carry around in life. It’s gone to Spain, Argentina three times obviously Alaska, and it’s been all over the United States West and Midwest.The CFO IV Multiplier was a gift from a friend long ago ( thanks Dave, my covetousness was obvious). The CFO V is a recent acquisition from eBay. I outbid the shit out of the next guy to get it and it came with four extra spools. It was brand new to boot. I didn’t realize it was a multiplier when I was bidding on it. All the better to savor in victory. My collection includes a pile of antique Hardy reels that are not going. Sorry guys.

My favorite vintage bamboo fly rod is coming.  Easy to slip him into another rod tube. He’s been all over the world, too. Just bought a vintage 4 weight fiberglass rod that’s coming too, although it’s length is a little weird and I may need to hand carry it. To save space I’ve doubled up all the five, six and eight weight rods.

The first bags are packed and the very first one is 12 pounds overweight. If it was just clothing I’m sure we could make it into two bags but with GPS, GPS mounts, camera, camera gear, flyfishing gear complete, and a couple knickknacks like a favorite coffee press that we doubt to find  in Argentina or Chile, we got a lot of crap. The Leopold binoculars are going because one of the missions we have personally is to watch birds. Glorious, exotic pampas and Patagonian birds. A long skinny continent that gets wilder, cooler and windier as we descend it provides a lot of unknowns. Lots of clothing layers. Flies and fly boxes don’t weigh anything individually, but when there’s 20+ stuffed boxes of them they add up.

Looks like we’ll be dragging six bags.