“If Trailmaster rods could talk, their collected adventures would produce an
epic,” Paul Bruun’s Classics feature in the 2013 winter issue of TROUT.
Do you have a favorite memory of an afternoon on the river? Or a tale you had to be there to believe? Let us know briefly in the comments and you may see your story in the next issue of TROUT.
By Dave Carpenter January 7, 2013 - 3:37 pm
I just finished your article in TROUT about the W&M Trailmaster rod. Whooee, that took me back. My parents presented me with this rod in May, 1960 as a gift for a 17 year old graduate from West High School in Denver. At that time it was an expenditure my folks could ill afford, and I’ve taken good care of it ever since. I showed the article to my wife and then went to the “fishing closet” to bring the rod in to show her where I’d etched my name and driver’s license number on the handle. The rod’s still in great shape although the plastic cap on the aluminum tube has a piece missing. I confess I haven’t used this rod in quite a spell, but because of its memories and versatility it will never see the bone pile. I’m turning 70 this week and I thank you for the nostalgia. Dave Carpenter Scottsdale, AZ
By Dave Carpenter January 7, 2013 - 3:42 pm
Great article.
By Jim White January 8, 2013 - 10:06 am
The article in my latest issue of TROUT about the Eagle Claw Trailmaster caused me to go digging through my stack of rods in my fishing tackle storeroom. I was sure I had one of these in here somewhere….and yep, there it was! It was in a flyrod carrying bag I purchased many years ago when I lived in Alaska back in the sixties. I bought my Trailmaster while stationed at Elmendorf Air Force base in 1962 at the base PX store. I used it to catch everything from arctic grayling to king salmon and it has given me many memories of good times on beautiful rivers. It is still in perfect condition and is ready to go on a minute’s notice. I own many other rods, but this one has a special place in my heart. It is the rod that got me started in flyfishing mode and that has been my main form of fishing ever since. Thanks, Trailmaster, for changing my life for the better!
Jim White – Roswell, GA
By Gary White-Powell, Wyoming January 8, 2013 - 6:16 pm
I have two Trail Masters. My Dad and I each got one in 1966. When it was too windy around Laramie, I put on my MItchell 300 and fly fished with a clear bubble. Other wise, the rod handled flies with my 1494 Medalist. I still have all that gear but now keep one rod set up for fly and the other set up for spinning. Not only are the memories great, it all still works.
By Kirk Kestler January 10, 2013 - 1:50 am
My interest in fly fishing began by reading Ted Trueblood in Field and Stream beginning when I was in the fourth and fifth grade. A few years later, I ventured out on a nearby river with my Dad’s old cane rod sporting an automatic reel fitted with a level line that needed dressing. In spite of not knowing how to cast, I managed to catch a pair of small rainbows using a Black Gnat dry fly fished wet. I was hooked.
Now I needed my own rod. I learned about the Eagle Claw Trailmasters. I saved up my money and bought the 7 1/2 foot four piece fly rod. It was rated for a “D” line, but the inscription also had a tiny numeral “6″ by the word “Line.” These were the days when line weight designations were changing from the letters to the numbers and tapers were just coming into vogue. I also bought a Plueger Medalist to pair with the Trailmaster and a Shakespear floating line.
I’d been tying flies from a Herter’s Fly Tying Kit four a couple years. Armed with some shabby but servicable Light Cahills, Light Hendriksons and Black Gnats, I took my new outfit on a backpack trip to a high mountain lake in Northern California’s Desolation Wilderness. My Dad, a friend, and I stumbled on to a small high lake overpopulated with Brook Trout. We were there just after ice-out. During the day we did well with spinners and bait from our spinning rods, filling our limit with snake-like underfed Brookies. But all day long, I’d been thinking about my flies and my fly rod. I really wanted to give them a try. Not only did I want to catch a trout on my very own rod using my very own flies, I wanted to justify having carried up the fly outfit along with the spinning gear in my pack. I’d been taking some heat for that from my fellow spin anglers.
After supper, I left the spinning gear in camp and hiked around the lake with my trailmaster, looking for rising trout. At the far end of the lake, the water came up to a cliff with only a small bank to cast from. There was an underwater ledge dropping off into deep water. As the sun began to set, the trout began to rise on the surface above the drop off.
Casting was difficult for me, not only because I didn’t know how, but there was the mountainside rising steeply behind me. Somehow I managed to toss a number 12 Light Hendrikson out about twenty feet, and it happened: a nice rise and fish on. I had quite a fight from the Brook Trout, and when I landed it, it was the largest trout we’d caught all day. It even had a little bit of a hooked jaw. I was estatic.
However, darkness was coming on now and I had the prospect of a long hike all around the lake to return to camp. The shortest way back was up over a rocky outcropping and a higher cliff and then back down to level ground. The problem was, I would have to traverse two snow fields to get up over the cliff. One of these was solid snow right down over the deepest part of the lake. In spite of the risks, I determined to take the shorter way. I put the trout on a stick in one hand and my Trailmaster fly rod in the other and began to climb.
When I reached the snow drift I carefully stepped my way across. My boots were leather work style boots, no lug soles. Halfway across the snow chute I began to slide down toward the overhang with an eventual drop into the icy cold deep water. Things didn’t look good. I had the good sense not to panic but to stick the fish stick into the snow with the left hand, and the butt of my Trailmaster into the snow with my right. I got a grip in the corn snow and stopped my slide.
After regaining my footing, I finished my traverse, more painstakingly stomping foot wells into the snow. I got back to camp by dark. Not only had my Trailmaster helped me catch a beautiful trout on one of my own flies, it just may have saved my life as well.
I contined fishing my Trailmaster fly rod through my high school years, not only for mountain trout, but sea run shad in a local river. What fun I had with that rod. I still have it, and though the aluminum tube is a little beat up, and the wrappings on the guides are slightly frayed, the foil medalion is still affixed to the cork grip. What wonderful memories my Trailmaster has afforded me.
By Paul A. Taylor January 10, 2013 - 9:59 am
Back in the sixties when I first saw the versatility of the Trailmaster I knew I had to have one. I was working in a position that required me to travel quite a bit.
I married the Trailmaster with a couple of other “Classics”. A Mitchel 300 and a Pflueger Medalist 1494.l made up a small lure/fly box to which I added a Mepps Spinner, an Abu Garcia Spinner, a Daredevil ,a Johnson Spoon, and for top water spinning a small Jitterbug. For flies I put in the ever effective Woolly Bugger, Prince and Hare’s Ears Nymphs,a Royal Coachman , some Hendricksons , a few Elk Hair Caddises and a Connamara Black.
My work took me pretty much around the world as well as all 50 states.For the most part if I was going to be near any fishable water the Trailmaster and my lure/fly box would be on the trip.
One of my fondest memories was when I was fishing in the West of Ireland.I went fishing around Ashford Castle on the Cong River and Loughs Corrib and Mast. (The Quiet Man movie was filmed in this area)
After a couple of productive days I needed to head down to Shannon and home. However I had heard of some good mackeral fishing on Galway Bay. So I thought I would try it late in the afternoon.
The drill was you fished from the rocky shore and waited for the mackeral to come by chasing the bait fish schools. If you got your cast into the boiling water you would certainly catch one of them. There were a few locals fishing there and they were using the equivalent of an 8 ft. bamboo pole with a line tied to the end and about 10 to 12 ft of line with a few hooks on the end and some flashers. Of course they were limited as to how far out they could get that rig,maybe 15 to 20 feet atmost. So they could only try for schools that came very close to shore.
With my Trailmaster set up with the Mitchell and the Johnson Spoon I could get out 30 to 60 yards.When a school came by about 40 yards out I cast into the middle and immediately had hook up. When I brought the fish in,one of the locals, an older Irishman, jumped down to the water’s edge and took the fish off for me. He then motioned for me to cast again. Well this routine kept up for about and hour and a half. I must have caught 30 fish or more. I was delighted of course.
As I was packing up and getting ready to leave I gave the fish to the old gentleman who had help me. He was sayiny something to me but I couldn’t understand as he was speaking in the old GAELIC. a YOUNG LAD THERE TRANSLATED AND SAID ” HE WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU WILL BE BACK TOMORROW NIGHT.”
By John Trammell January 14, 2013 - 5:30 pm
I purchased my Trailmaster spin/fly rod in Seattle ca. 1965, I needed a compact, versatile rod to take with me as I explored the Pacific Northwest in my work as a minerals-exploration geologist. As things turned out I was usually too busy to use it, despite that my work areas were in the some best trout territory in the U.S.A. and Canada. Later, when I returned to school to earn my Ph.D. it saw more use in my dissertation area in northwestern Montana. In fact it provided dinner in the field on a number of occasions. That was before I joined T.U., and got the catch-and-release religion. Eventually, I donated it to a fund-raising garage sale for Grand Valley Anglers – my chapter. Mixed feelings about that at the time, but by then I had more rods than I needed, and GVA was in need of funds for our projects. Reading about the Trailmaster in Trout magazine brought back memories – and a bit of regret for not having it anymore.
By Dave Lazor Sr January 25, 2013 - 9:28 pm
It was early 1968 while stationed at Travis AFB, CA that I bought a Wright & McGill/Eagle Claw Trailmaster fly rod and a Pfleuger Medalist 1494 fly reel from the Base Exchange store, both for under $75. Being in the enlisted ranks this was something I could afford. This was my start at fly fishing, after reading a how-to fly fishing book from the base library.
After receiving a lead where some great hiking and fly fishing locations were in the northern Sierras, I bought several USGS Quadrangle Topo maps of the area northeast of Stirling City, CA – North Fork of the Feather River, the Big Kimshew River, and numerous mountain lakes (Spring Valley, Morris, Chips, Long Lakes), loaded with trout.
Backpacking in from Spring Valley Lake, the compact 4-piece 7-1/2′ Trailmaster packed in its aluminum tube strapped to my backpack served me well by providing ample food during my 3 to 4 day hikes.
Later in the 1990s, while backpacking in the Wind River Range, WY with our son, the Trailmaster served us well again. We made four trips backpacking in about 10 miles toward the Continental Divide from Saint Lawrence Ranger Station to the Wilson Creek Lakes Basin and Paradise Lakes Basin. Each case we set up base camp and from there made day hikes fishing many of the mountain lakes.
Again the Wright & McGill/Eagle Claw Trailmaster fly rod performed perfectly for the situation – for backpacking and catching 18 to 24” cutthroat, brown, and brook trout out West or native brookies in northwestern PA. It’s still the rod that’s most special even compared to a Sage graphite that was a gift in more recent years. The W&M Trailmaster still continues to serve me well – a true classic giving me 45 years of great memories. A classic that will be handed down to a grandson to continue creating another generation of great fly fishing experiences.
Dave Lazor Sr
Lakewood, OH
By Allen Saunders March 24, 2013 - 11:20 am
This article brought a welcome measure of cheer on a winter day when it wasn’t possible to get out on the stream. I won my Trailmaster rod as a door prize at a fly fishing seminar at a Northern Virginia community college in 1972. It served me well in Virginia streams and rivers, proving its worth on brookies and on some lunker bass. Its versatility and portability proved themselves when using it overseas to cast the full range of offerings, from larger streamers to midges. It packed in well to some mountain rivers in Iran (when it was still possible to travel there) which offered light fishing pressure and fine rainbows. It made quite a hit in Ireland, where the local anglers were intrigued to see a rod that could take both a flyreel and a spinning reel. The browns seemed to like it, too. It was ideal on some of Germany’s well-managed trout rivers, giving me days when the fishing was so good that I almost didn’t have to lie about it.
The only mishap I ever had with it was when my wife inadvertently slammed the car door on it while breaking camp after what had been an enjoyable trip. This was the closest point to divorce in an otherwise joyous 40+ year marriage. I sent it in to Wright-McGill for repairs. They returned it to me with the damaged section replaced, the grip and aluminum case cleaned, and the broken chain that held the cap on the case replaced. You can’t want much better than that.
After reading the article, I fetched out the rod and was pleased to find it fully workable despite quite a few years of disuse. I believe I’ll take it out onto the stream this spring for old times’ sake.