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happens to be out on loan right now..........

As I said in an earlier story it was part of my daily regimen to scour eBay for rods in some really odd ways. This rod was found using the simple words bamboo rod. As was the case back 8 years ago less than 200 rods would show up and most had their maker name in the tag line and unless it was something I was looking for they were generally ignored.

What I was looking for were rods the seller either had no idea as to what they were or was too lazy to mention the information. Since I was on a teleconference that would last 2 1/2 hours I wrote down the 20 items I would be looking at while on the teleconference. As I opened each auction the usual possible Chubb/Montague would appear or the one with 4 sections with each section having its own length different from its neighbor and often with the words Excellent Condition looks like it has never been fished! When I opened the 19th auction there were these fuzzy, tiny and hard to see photos but from what I was looking at it piqued my interest.

I noted the auction item was about 40 miles from me in NH so I quickly sent a request for a few additional photos or if I could stop by and look at and the returned answer was no. Undaunted I added the auction to my watch list and looked at yet another parts rod in number 20 so I just sat and listened to the teleconference a little better.

I was hoping the photos would be better to look at since I had a wonderful monitor at home but sadly they weren't that much better but I was able to copy the image and blow it up a bit in my imaging software and with the aid of a magnifying glass confirmed my suspicions the rod was an Edwards rod but what model, period and which Edwards I knew not.

In the body of the auction the seller listed it as a 2 pc rod made of bamboo, 7' long and had been hanging in the rafter in the barn for the past 75 years........... It did not say if there were 2 tips, only one tip was shown, or bag and tube and none were in the photos. I decided to place a test the waters bid and ended up the high bidder with the auction ending in 3 days.

This is when I started to notice that my moniker was being watched as folks I knew were bidding against me (this being a time when you could see who the bidder was but that is no longer the case). I kept an eye on it the next 3 days and when the auction ended I was the winner and it had not come close to the figure I placed as my testing the water bid so I was happy. Again, I emailed the seller to ask if I could pick the rod up and pay them in cash, the answer came back no, postal money order only and $28.50 shipping to ship 40 miles!

Four days later a cardboard tube arrived so I opened it to find a lot of newspaper. I unfolded the newspaper to find a butt and 1 tip rolled inside and the sections were about as fuzzy as the photos since the rod was covered with 75 years worth of pigeon guano.

Getting over my initial shock I set the rod down on the newspaper and went and got my cleaning materials. It took a couple of hours to clean the reel seat and furnishing and another 40 minutes to clean the grip and then on to the rod shaft. A little over and hour into cleaning the rod shaft I began to see signs of script and took it very slowly not wishing to remove any if I could avoid to. After almost 2 hours had passed I got to see E. W. Edwards Autograph Deluxe Perfection in script and I simply stopped cleaning the rod and contacted Rick Taupier who was a moderator with me on Clark's who did restorations and was familiar with Edwards work. It came back in wonderful shape and became my favorite 7' 4 WT rod and when we had a 7' 4 WT Rod Shoot Out it went up against stiff competition, a pre-fire HL Leonard 38 H, a Payne Model 98 and Schaaf Custom Creede IV with the Edwards coming out the winner. She's now in Michigan with rod maker Ron Barch who is also the editor of the Planing Form Magazine who is testing it and supposed to write a review of his thoughts on it in the Planing Form.

Hi Jay...... see you found us!