Herter's stuff....

OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

TC,
R

wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

Herter's was a little before my time. I was in a rod building
club in 7th grade and we all built spinning rods using Herter's
blanks, cork, reel seat, guides and thread. The Herter's catalog
was one-stop shopping for rod builders circa 1969.

--
Ken Fortenberry

On Apr 17, 5:48 am, wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

TC,
R

Hereter was the last place I bought parachute fly hooks. They had the
shank bent to form a regular eye and then backwards and then up 90
degrees to a "reqular" eye. that eye being 90 degrees to the shank.
I still have a lot of herters hooks. The parachute hooks I gave
away.
I had a surplus Mexican Mauser ( $18.95 for the barreled action) and a
Herters second stock ( $8.95) that was really sweet.
Herters had lots of good fly tying material ( and lots of gaudy stuff
as well ) that was cheap. The reason they went out of business is
they got in trouble for importing endagered species more than once.
When they went out business they had a small store in suburban
Minneapolis. They brought up lots of stuff from Waseca. I bought
probably 40,000 hooks for maby $20-25. I also bought 75 -80 sets of
reloading dies. All for not very popular calibers like 218 bee,
25-35, 6.5 sweedish, 9.3 x 65 etc. Not an 06, 270 or anything like
that in the lot.
Christian Herter was not related to George and the folks from
Minnesota.

wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

I never had one, but I was always amused by their duckling harnesses
(used for muskie fishing).

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:48:05 -0500, wrote:

OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

TC,
R


I love my "Professional Fly Tying and Tackle Making Manual and
Manufactureers' Guide " wherein he claims all things good for the
Herter family and almost all things non-Herter as being crap. Has many
great original fly recipes. I also have an old Herter's fiberglass rod
(7' 9" E weight line) that is fun to cast. Probably a kit built but
done very well with nice components.


g.c.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:41:54 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

Herter's was a little before my time. I was in a rod building
club in 7th grade and we all built spinning rods using Herter's
blanks, cork, reel seat, guides and thread. The Herter's catalog
was one-stop shopping for rod builders circa 1969.

Huh? You're MUCH older than me, and it wasn't before MY time.
Seriously, they were still producing the "George style" catalogs into,
IIRC, the mid-70s (definitely the early 70s). I think the name is still
around (it was a year or two ago), but it's about like A & F...well,
nothing in sporting goods is THAT bad, but...

And speaking of A & F....

TC,
R

wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?
Herter's was a little before my time. I was in a rod building
club in 7th grade and we all built spinning rods using Herter's
blanks, cork, reel seat, guides and thread. The Herter's catalog
was one-stop shopping for rod builders circa 1969.

Huh? You're MUCH older than me, and it wasn't before MY time.
Seriously, they were still producing the "George style" catalogs into,
IIRC, the mid-70s (definitely the early 70s). I think the name is still
around (it was a year or two ago), but it's about like A & F...well,
nothing in sporting goods is THAT bad, but...

And speaking of A & F....

By the time I started doing a lot of catalog shopping and buying
my own fishing gear Herter's was already out of business. I do
remember the Herter's catalog from the late 60's - early 70's but
the only time I remember actually using the catalog was that time
in 7th grade. A lot of folks have memories of some of the more
outlandish and "PT Barnumesque" aspects of the catalog but I don't
remember any of that.

I assume you're talking about Abercrombie and Fitch ? It's funny,
I was looking at old Hardy reels on eBay and a lot of the classic
lightweight series reels for sale were manufactred by Hardy for
Abercrombie and Fitch.

And what's with this MUCH older crap ? Hell, I'm only 50.

--
Ken Fortenberry

wrote:
OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

TC,
R

Herter was a one of a kind! His catalogs fueled my daydreams when I was
a kid waiting for our annual fishing trip to Minnesota or Canada. Each
one was worn out before the next arrived. I usually made an order using
my Christmas money to buy the "World's Greatest" lures and the "finest
hand crafted" gear at prices that even a kid could afford. Some of the
stuff was complete garbage but most was serviceable and some was
excellent. However, there was no way to tell before you ordered it
because EVERYTHING was "THE BEST". In his fly tying book, there is much
pomp and hooey but if you look past it, it is full of good advice and
there are a couple gems where he was decades ahead of everyone else. The
hard part was picking out the good stuff.


Warren took George Gherke and me on a drift down the Madison just before
George died. While we were fishing a dropoff on the edge of a gravel
bar, I remarked to George that his online demeanor reminded me alot of
George Herter. He stated with a smile that no one had ever said that to
him but that Herter was his hero and had corresponded with him as a
child. He said he tried to emulate Herter in his business dealings as
well as his personal life.


For those of you that have read even one of the Herter catalogs or any
of the Herter books, I think this sheds some light on at least some of
George's behavior on ROFF.

Willi

"George Cleveland" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:48:05 -0500, wrote:

OK, I got the ball rolling with my reply to BJ...so what is
everyone's/anyone's favorite Herter's stuff, good, bad, or nonsensical,
fishing, hunting, or general sporting goods?

TC,
R


I love my "Professional Fly Tying and Tackle Making Manual and
Manufactureers' Guide " wherein he claims all things good for the
Herter family and almost all things non-Herter as being crap. Has many
great original fly recipes. I also have an old Herter's fiberglass rod
(7' 9" E weight line) that is fun to cast. Probably a kit built but
done very well with nice components.


g.c.

I've got all of my Uncle Dick's old Herter's gear for fly tyin' and the
original (1930s or 40s) book/manual of fly fishin' how tos and how not tos.
It's a comical read. George Herter hated the English, apparently, as he bad
mouth' their fly fishin' method, gear, and anything else throughout the
book. It does have a good deal of interesting and informative material in
it though.

My Uncle Dick bought all of his Herter's gear when he was stationed in
Alaska with the USAF, in 1959. I still have several of his original spools
of black thread and a very nice assortment of colored silk floss, as well.

Ebay has pics of some of the stuff I received from Uncle Dick:
http://tinyurl.com/2g46wg

http://tinyurl.com/257vhe

http://tinyurl.com/ywr7tc

Op

"Willi" wrote in message
...
For those of you that have read even one of the Herter catalogs or any of
the Herter books, I think this sheds some light on at least some of
George's behavior on ROFF.

Willi

Agreed!

Op