Years ago (late 70s) i saved my money and purchased my second fly rod from a bin at the Spokane Valley White Elephant store. For many sportsman in the Pacific Northwest the Spokane White Elephant was their favorite store as it had everything a hunter or fisherman could want at extremely reasonable prices. Now out of business i cherish my memories as a youngster in the 70s and 80s going to that store. Unfortunately i gave the Eagle Claw Denco 9ft 9wt rod and Pfluger Medalist copy fly reel (Danielson) away 35 years ago after going graphite. About a year ago I found another one that was basically unfished. I put a slightly more appropriate Medalist reel on it this time (1495 1/2 with floating line and 1495 with fast sinking line). Casting it was a pleasant experience as the slow fiberglass feel and the reaching power of the 9 wt line was suprisingly meditative. Now having owned nearly 100 flyrods of some sort over the years I was surprised how well the old clunker worked. In my early teens i caught countless bluegill and trout at Newman lake, Coeur'd Alene lake, Badger lake and the Spokane River.

One particularly memorable experience with the rod was fishing Newman Lake in our 12 ft row boat. I was fishing about 1 mile from our cabin slow trolling a Carey Special with a full sink line using the oars and did very well on 13" rainbows. I noticed the sky started getting dark. Unsure what was happening i leaned into those oars as any wirey 14 year old boy would do and made it back to the cabin in record time. I asked what was going in and my father said Mt Saint Helens erupted!
We all sat down and watched the TV as ash started accumulating on the vehicles outside.

Fast forward to now I decided it was time to fish Williams lake using my "new" old rod using the same technique as i used when the mountain blew. I chose Williams because it was a lake i have wanted to fish for 40 years but never did because we always fished Badger instead which was about 1 mile from Williams and because Newman lake was no longer stocked with trout.

In addition to the Eagle Claw rod I brought a refurbished Vom Hofe bamboo trolling rod and reel that were likely well over 100 years old loaded with lead core line and a Jack Lloyd gang troll flasher which was also a method i used when my grandparents took me fishing.

Fishing was slow. I ended up catching several healthy rainbows (most being on the trolling rod) and the Williams lake trip was a success. A lunch on the boat was icing on the cake.

Thanks for looking!!

Old timey fishing at its best!!!

I grew up in Kennewick, and yes, a trip to the White Elephant was HUGE!!!! All that stuff, it was just piled and shoved into that store, you never knew what you might find.
And Carey Specials, that was the fly, everybody trolled those around. This is just memory lane, thanks for stirring the grey matter.

Good stuff. I remember the eruption, but only because a family friend had moved to Vancouver not long before (we lived in Virginia at the time). She enclosed a cool photo in her letter ... the old days, before email and social media

Thanks for reminding me to get my NOS Denco out of the plastic wrap and get it on the water this weekend!

How on Earth did you fry up trout in the rowboat?!

Nice setup! I have my mom's old Griswold pan with lid that looks about the same size. I agree, the pan, camp stove, and enjoying a nice meal adds to the whole experience. Congrats!