The Pflueger family’s hook, reel and tackle company produced the Pflueger Medalist with its innovative round metal line guide, removable spool latch, reversible rectangular line guard and drag clicks, adjustable drags and hollow spool arbors for adding lead shot to balance a heavier rod. Models of this classic reel ranged from the tiny 1492 trout to the 1498 tarpon and included half sizes.
Did you learn to fish with a Pflueger Medalist? Is it still in your arsenal of fishing gear today? Let us know in the comments!
By Richard Ostroff April 10, 2012 - 10:09 am
The Old man And The Reservoir
Twenty-five years ago my wife, Teri and I traded our one bedroom apartment in Manhattan for an 18th century home, in bucolic Westchester County, New York. Having grown up in an apartment in Miami Beach, this was my first opportunity to experience true country living.
And since I was buying a house “in the country,” the one essential thing I had to do to make the experience complete was to take up fly-fishing. So, like so many others new to the sport I beat a quick path to the fly fishing shop I passed when exiting Grand Central each morning. With little care to cost I bought–certainly by spin fishing standards– a pricy fishing rod, reel, vest, waders, wadding boots, fly box and so on. And though, I never cast a line (let alone caught a fish) I looked like a seasoned fly fisherman.
So come the very next weekend, twelve hundred dollars lighter and twelve pounds heavier, I headed for the water. Truly one of the greatest things about Northern Westchester is that water is everywhere. And to get my feet wet, so to speak, I parked the Ferrari on a dirt road and wadded into Cross River reservoir. I had bought a paperback on fishing the Croton Watershed and read how fly fishermen get their lines in the water; I was ready to catch my first fish.
Per my fly fishing handbook’s instruction, I pulled out a measure of line, and flipped it back, immediately hooking a 30,000 pound tree. Instinctively, I jerked the rod forward but no go, I was hooked – bad. Suddenly, from behind I heard someone say, “Hey, whatta ya doin’?” I turned around to find a weathered, 65ish looking guy with a shock of unruly white hair. And I replied,” I’m fly fishing.” And he said, “Oh, is that what you’re doing?”
This was my first meeting with Dick Carlton, the guy who wrote the chapter on Reservoir fishing in my paperback. And Dick had a Pflueger Medalist. He also had several photographs of himself posing next to some of the largest trout I had ever seen. Dick became my fly-fishing teacher, my mentor and my friend. Locally, Dick’s success and his only reel, the Medalist, were legendary. And through all the Saturday mornings of fishing, when I caught trout, Dick and his Medalist usually caught bigger.
I always wondered why didn’t Dick have a beautiful fly box made of Bakelite, why Dick didn’t fish a bamboo rod or use one of those amazing English reels?” In fact, Dick tied his own flies; he even shot his own birds for the feathers. But Dick never was caught up in all my Yuppie, gotta-have-more-better-faster-world. And more to the point, Dick didn’t need that stuff. I was the one who went home and “organized” my bamboo rods, store-bought flies and expensive reels to convince myself I was something I was yet to become.
The truth is I’ll never be as good as Dick. He dedicated his life to fly fishing, all aspects of it, from tying flies, to underwater geography to watershed conservation. And his reel was almost always a $15 Medalist. Of course I’m not indicting pricey, beautiful, technologically advanced, fly-fishing gear, in fact, I’m a fan. A big fan. Because you don’t have to invest a big chunk of cash to be able to step into a stream and catch trout. If you’ve got the knowledge and the ability, a Medalist can be your best friend.
And though Dick passed on several years ago and I’ve grow into a fair fly fisherman, every morning I wake up to Dick’s old Pflueger Medalist on my bureau as a constant reminder of a good friend who didn’t need expensive gear to be great. And who taught me to appreciate the wonder of a sport I couldn’t even imagine until he strolled up behind me and into my life.
By Chris April 10, 2012 - 12:25 pm
The 1492 … a reel infused with memories.
By Sam Sperry April 10, 2012 - 1:15 pm
Paul Bruun’s article on the Pflueger Medalist provided me with a wonderful trip back to 1948 or 1949 in New Mexico. My father bought two South Bend three-piece bamboo nine-foot fly rods, one for each of us, at $9.00 each. And he bought me my first fly reel – a Medalist with, believe it or not, a Cortland 333 line. Soon after my father’s death, I hhit the road with the two rods and the medalist. Over the years I have rewrappped and varnished the rods severaln times. I fished with them as I spent time in Colorado and Wyoming and finally settled in Montana – I finally got away from the crowds and into a bunch of trout stayed to this day. I retired the rods to a wall hanging place. One had blown a ferule. I took it to be repaired by a guy who worked out of his garage on the Missouri. When I told him what I had done with the rods, he said, “Grass is for fish, not for hanging on the wall. Get ‘em down and put them to work.” I still pursue the ever-elusive trout with the South Bends and the Medalist. They are almost sixty-five years old and work better than they ever did. I have a daughter who lives on the Bitterroot and who has become a great flyfisher. I will leave the rods and the Medalist to her soon and perhaps she will work them for another fifty years or so. Tight lines, Paul, and thank you.
By Greg Jacobsen April 11, 2012 - 7:39 am
Paul Bruun’s article on the Pflueger Medalist reel brought back the memory of Christmas morning 1979. I had just begun “getting into” fly fishing on a local pond for largemouth bass that summer. I thought I had hit the pinnacle of fly fishing, and since none of my friends could cast, yet, with a fly rod, I was also the envey of them all. My father took me to a stocked trout stream in the fall, but much to my dismay, it was a lot harder to cast standing in a small stream than from the bank of a lake. I couldn’t get my fly a foot in front of me, which, as anyone knows, not too many trout will feed. I was so frustrated at my inability to use my father’s outfit, I gave up and sat on the bank, only to watch him effortlessly casting to the far side of the stream, right to the undercut bank, and catching trout after trout,
I had made up my mind that my fly fishing day were over. I could never equal the effortless casting and presicion delivery my father had developed over his 30 plus years of fly fishing.
My father had obviously picked up on my frustrations. When I woke up on Christmas morning 1979, I had the usual gifts under the tree, shirts, pants, and games that were popular at the time, but one package was partially hidden. It had the same wrapping paper as the others, but instead of being from Santa, the card read “from Dad”. I ripped off the paper and found my self starring at the best Christmas present I had ever received, a Plfueger Medalist fly reel. I looked at my father and he winked, signifying he knew my inner most thoughts.
We went to the same stocked stream in the spring, my confidence was sky high since I had my own fly reel. My father and I fished all day, only catching one small trout and only stopping for a quick lunch break, but it was the best day of fishing I had in my life.
I have moved on to bigger and better reels, but none of the other reels will steal the place I have in my heart for the Pflueger Medalist, the true original love of my life.
I kept the reel stored away in it’s original box, waiting for my son to take up the art of fly fishing. I finally gave it to him on Christmas morning 2009, 30 years after i had received it, and the card read “from Dad”.
By Dietmar Grimm April 12, 2012 - 3:25 pm
@ Richard, Sam, and Greg. What wonderful stories. It is really incredible to see how important fly fishing can be to us as individuals, but that it comes through sharing those experiences with others.
By Tackle the Water with Pflueger | Wide Open Spaces Blog April 20, 2012 - 4:55 pm
[...] Trout Unlimited article [...]
By Jeff Allen April 21, 2012 - 4:25 pm
Flipping through the pages of Trout Magazine, I was shock and surprised to see “my reel” featured on the back page. “My reel” was passed down to me by my father and likely his father to him. I began fly fishing with my father when I was about 11 years old. On summer holiday weekends we would take the 4 hour drive from our home in central Maine to the brook trout filled lakes near Jackman. Except for my drug store youth-sized rod and a small metal fly box, all my other gear was borrowed from my dad including my Medalist reel. My dad evetually upgraded my rod to a fiberglass Fenwick, but my reel stayed the same. We continued these trips until I became busy with high school activities, summer jobs, and moving away to start my career. I was smart enough to pack up my still borrowed fly fishing gear to embark on my solo fishing exploits.
When my dad passed away years later, I inherited his inventory of flies, boxes, rods, and reels. This brought my reel collection to a total of 5, all Medalists (4 are 1495-1/2, 1 is a 1495). I’ve upgraded my net, waders, fly boxes and rods over my 20 years of solo fishing but still just have the Medalist reels. Mainly due to my Yankee frugality. Those shiny reels in the LL Bean and Orvis catalogs are appealing, but I could never figure out why I would need a new reel. Perhaps its because I’ve never landed a trout big enough that I couldn’t strip in by hand. Up until now I’ve been somewhat embarrassed by my “cheap” reels, but now I will use them with pride after reading this article.
My dad would always carry two reels in the boat. He would always start with a sinking line but restring his rod with a floating line if/when the surface feeding begain. Two of the reels still have his outfitted with his last wet and dry lines.
Coincindently, my own son is 11. I look forward to teaching him how to wade the rivers of western Wisconsin using his inherited Medalist reel.
By Karl Gies April 22, 2012 - 10:54 pm
In 1950 I was thirteen and fly fished entirely with wet flies, mainly the Sandy Mite, Buddy Mite and Lady Mite. I had a South Bend bamboo fly rod and a Perrine double action automatic fly reel. My grandfather had a country tavern and cabins about a mile from Monarch, Montana and I spent a lot of my summers with him. His place was called “Gies Cabins & Tavern. There were a lot of good streams in the Belt Mountains close to his tavern. I was up there with a friend also from Lewistown, Montana which is about one hundred miles from Monarch and we decided to backpack into a favorite stream and camp out for two or three days. My grandfather’s hired hand gave us ride to where the trail started. On the first day the Perrine reel broke and I spent the rest of the time fishing with it which was a real chore. When I got home to Lewistown I went down to Nate’s Sport Shop and told them about what happened. I asked them to recommend a reel that would never let me down like this again. They sold me a Pflueger Medalist 1494 1/2 which I still have and occasionally use. cheers, Karl Gies
By Donald Smith May 1, 2012 - 8:56 pm
The article about the Pflueger Medalist took me back to years gone by when I learned to flyfish. It was in 1983 and I was in college at Westfield State in Westfield, MA. I was taking a geology class and thought it odd that a gentleman in his late 50′s early 60′s was in our class. I think that was the only adult ever in any of my classes. He sat near me and we got to talking about one thing or another and fishing came into the converstation. Come to find out we both fished and hunted. He asked me if I flyfished and I said no that my fishing had been basically confined to the art of hard water fishing (ice fishing). He mentioned that he flyfished and spoke to me often about it before class. One day he offered to take me with him. He taught me to cast in his back yard with and old rod and a medalist reel. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I found it intriguing the mechanics of it. Later that day we hit the Westfield river for an afternoon of flyfishing for trout. It was a blast. I started flyfishing on my own on the weekends and such he couldn’t make it out. I did well on some of the tributaries of the Westfield that I discovered with a topo map I’d look at in geology class. No computers on GPS’s back then. I thought about him a few weeks ago when I was in Westfield at the commuter lot at the college waiting for the rest of the volunteers to show up to help Mass fish and wildlife stock salmon fry in a near by creek. That whole day was a trip down memory lane. I visited some of the old haunts we used to fish and the small sporting goods shop we’d stop into. Thanks John for taking a kid under your wing and teaching him how to fly cast and tie flies. I never realized it back then it would be a set of skills I’d cherish and enjoy the rest of my life and also pass on to numerous people over the years. We’ll fish together again someday.
By Joe Walker May 3, 2012 - 7:51 am
I never fished with the Pflueger Medalist but I do have one that I got after my dad passed away. It is still in the original box, brand new, never used. The rod that was with it is some kind of Japanese made 6 piece, still new and in its box. Funny, I never knew the Japanese fly fished. Both are beautiful and locked away in my gun cabinet.
By Bob Frenette May 6, 2012 - 4:17 pm
I have a Pflueger Medalist incident. I had this reel for about 25 years set up with floating line. I think it was 6 or 8 weight. I took it to Grand Caicos Island on a vacation. The scene was on a beach with my kids snorkeling and me catching small shore fish. All of a sudden, my entire line was stripped from the spool. There were only a few turns left on the backing when I palmed it. A approximately 4 foot barracuda came totally out of the water, snapping the line. As I reeled the line back in, I noticed the drag was no longer there. I believe the fish burned it out. Loved that reel.
By mike June 17, 2012 - 11:18 pm
Just bought a 1498ad fly reel for 20$ at yard sale has 6 rivets made in usa. Looking fwd to hitting the stream next weekend came with olympic 3185 flyrod i had one in 70s reel was same model given me by grandfather he had since new was carried off by kids never expected to find another is a daily user minor scratches. Good shape
By mike June 17, 2012 - 11:19 pm
By way that was 1498da model pfluegar
By Michole Jensen November 27, 2012 - 9:07 pm
As a youngster nearly 40 years ago, I bought a Medalist 1494 1/2 reel when learning to fly fish in eastern Oregon. Through the years, I have tried many reels while experimenting with various fly rods and lines. I am rather frugal with my money and regardless of the reel I start with, I end up selling it and buying an old USA medalist. So far, they are the only reels I know that can handle banging on the rocks in search of native cutts, hauling in king salmon or tackling a steelhead on nearly any Northwest river. My current project is building a pair of 5-weight switch rods I plan on using while kayak fly fishing. After buying a decent quality large arbor reel, I found myself drawn once again to the Medalist and I recently purchased two 1495 1/2 reels for nearly the same price that I paid for the other reel that, by the way, will soon be available on Craigslist.
By Mike Ford March 25, 2013 - 3:21 pm
A 1494 Medalist was my first fly reel. Worked great on the fiberglass Fenwick 3/4 action rod. As I recall the line was 6 wt HCH. I have used that combo for trout, panfish, bass, and reds on the russian. I just loaded the reel with new DT 5 wt line. I love the simplicity this reel has given me for over 50 years.