Abercrombie & Fitch New Directions 1966 Catalog
$300
[74] pp.
Abercrombie & Fitch
1966
10 1/2" x 8 1/4"
Including a Donzi speedboat and an Amphicar, a car that can go on both land and water.
Stapled wraps
VG
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In flipping through the temptation-laden pages of the latest wish book—otherwise known as a sporting goods catalogue—to come to hand, the eye fell on an item worth more than its weight in gold. It was found in the New Directions, 1966, catalogue of Abercrombie & Fitch, the Madison Avenue merchants of sport. The item, a fishing rod, is actually worth more than gold, a metal selling for $35 an ounce. Anyone who wants this particular rod has only to ante up $47.50 an ounce. For a four-ounce 7½-foot fly rod the price is $190. The rod, of course, is a Payne rod, one of 90 built annually. I've never come up against a rod costing more, and very few that match it in quality. Even the Orvis Company, of Manchester, Vt., which also produces a high quality bamboo rod at high quality prices, hasn't a flyrod tagged as briskly as $190. Its nearest competitor is the 8-foot "Wes Jordon" selling at $165. Orvis does have a fishing rod selling for $230, but it is a 14-foot, two-handed salmon rod weighing nearly 20 ounces, which is something different from a light trout rod. The difference between rods and a low-priced set of sticks is the difference between a competition road racer and a pickup truck. Both will transport the driver to his destination. But the former's functioning will be superior and the latter, at best, will be adequate. The manner in which a well-built rod does the work of throwing out long flylines and also stands up to hard-fighting fish is a revelation. If the line is properly balanced to the rod and the caster knows how to cast, it takes only a little wrist action to make long perfect casts. Payne rods and others such as the Orvis and Leonards, have been around a long time. In 1913 Theodore Gordon, the patron saint of American fly fishing, was writing on English fly rods and said, "It is most interesting to compare their action with the actions of fine Leonard and Payne dry-fly rods." But E. F. Payne was building fly rods well before the turn of the century. His son, Jim, is now the rod maker. There is much more to a fly rod than meets the eye. Theories have been evolved, tested and discarded, or retained, all aimed at solving the complex engineering problems arising when several triangular pieces of bamboo are glued together and then subjected to severe stress. Boiled down to essentials, if the rod does what the angler wants it to do, then it is a good rod for him, no matter how much, or how little, it costs.