Congratulations on finding that rod in that condition.
Looking forward to a fishing report.

Very nice.

what does humility have to do with it?

Any way you look at it, this is a Very collectible rod.
I have an e-mail-me ebay search for Harnell 656 and 657, and never received that e-mail.

Not a collector at all, but I'd think any of the Harnells in that nice of condition would be collectable, and that one has a reel seat that matches the catalog pictures, mine has the same rear hood but no sliding hood, in house manufacture no doubt, with changes every so often.
30-40' is plenty far to be used fishing, at one point in my learning stage I marked several lines at 35' just so I wouldn't be tempted to cast farther than the fish. I can't see longer casts being useful in running water.
The grip is the part I like least on the 650R, the sexy curves just don't fit my hand well.

That's a beauty, and I'd bet loads of fun on little creeks. Would love to hear how it fishes.

My Harnell 7 foot 2pc of the same approx. vintage ( color & wraps look identical) lawn cast best with the higher rating 6 weight line. I've not actually fished it, lost a couple seasons to knee revision & broken leg rehabs, btu it's in the near future queue.

What a gorgeous diminutive one-piece rod - except for that little cork chip and sack wear, brand new.
Impossible to balance with a reel - my Hardy JLH Ultralite 234 feels like a brick on it - it does balance in the rear third of the cork.
This might be the rod to put your reel in your pocket, ala Chares Ritz.

I laid it out with two rods to compare. The Lami 605, a swoopy jewel with semi-para wet fly taper.
Not counting my 9' Sage RPLX-7, my first taste of para was the 6'9" 3-pc Fisher Sterling 6-wt that's part of a Fisher 5/6 combo, and was my small water hill country rod before I tried a couple of cane banties and settled into progressive venerable glass (short Phillipson and SA System 5). This is where dual rod rating has an actual meaning - the 8'11" progressive 4-pc in the Fisher Sterling combo is a 5-wt magic wand. Noteworthy, the Fisher IM6 6'9" 3-pc casts every bit the distance of 8'11" 4-pc.
Also noteworthy, I've owned an FF605, and fished that along with FF535 (friend's rod).

I don't really do a wiggle test, but look at and feel the rod curve as I'm making a real fly rod shoot line motion across my chest.
The 5' Harnell couldn't be anything but a para, and has the fastest tip of the 3 rods laid out. From there down, it's almost identical in taper with the Fisher IM6 para.
The Lami 605, well, it's oranges in this comparison, a swoopy rod that most lovers of light cane para would also love.

Construction - the mint block cork is the highest quality, and feels like a horse's nose. Of course no ferrule. Four snake guides plus mildrum stripper and tip top, and the wraps are excellent workmanship. The guides are tiny, and would not efficiently pass a modern floating line. Like my Harnell 652R of this vintage, the logo trademark vinyl transfer looks cheap and caught some air.
Don't know when I'll have time to test Teeny grain weights, but will try to get there this week (and don't plan to try it in 104 degrees).

I have never bought into the thought that small guides wont pass a modern line. I have an old Heddon 9ft 8wt with a ton of tiny guides and it shoots a LOT of line thru the guides. To each their own.

Gee, let's see, I fish prewar Heddon, marked 1918 Thomas and c. 1915 Leonard rods with modern floating lines - the guides on this Harnell and also on my 652R are smaller than than those.


Noteworthy, my 652R won't efficiently pass a modern floating line, but fishes great with a slime line.


I'm going to specifically point out about magicwrench on this thread.
This is the second recent Harnell thread on which he posted, stating on both he had no interest in the rods nor had he ever handled one.
I hope his day (week, month, life) improves.

Ron, not sure what your point is. Can you find where I said I had no interest?? I find Harnell very interesting, mostly because I have never seen one!
Wishing you the best.

BS-100 (20' head)
The Fisher needs 4' of the shooting head (20 gr) to load the tip, loads beautifully on the full head, and of course shoots out the final 40'.
The Lami loads on the leader, goes right to work feeding line with wide timing forgiveness, and I have this rod because it's the perfect rod to fish this line in small water.
The 5' Harnell also needs 4' (20 gr) of the shooting head past the tip to register a load in the rod. It's completely unforgiving, but works efficiently with short arm movements and haul to shoot the full 60'.

T130 (24' head). Of course the Fisher dials in perfectly with this line, nothing is going to change about the initial load, and as I remember, this rod will shoot a good piece of the running line with a roll cast. Also know from experience it will shoot the full 82' line.
The full grain weight slows down the Lami and loads into the handle. It would fish, and roll-cast beautifully, but shoots better with the lighter BS-100.

The Harnell comes into its own with the 24' 130-gr shooting head out the tip. It loads deep into the rod and at a pace just about anyone could handle. I didn't try distance, but there should be nothing slowing it down, and I would expect it to shoot to 80' with good timing.

This leads me to a short-belly WF6F (Teeny first cast) - I just happen to have one spooled on a 3" Beaudex with 7' leader and a piece of yarn ready to lawn cast.
This line has a full 160 gr in a 24' belly.
10' of this line from the Harnell tip will cast a dry fly with aplomb. So I'll extrapolate to it's not going to fish a DT well inside of 20'.
Not surprising, the guides are hateful with the fat WF floater - 10' of line will not pull out any more line - you feel the line jam in the guides, and it won't feed more line without an aggressive roll cast (or dragging one in the grass). However, once you get 15+' of the belly out, the belly weight can pull the rest through the guides, and of course the guides let go into the thinner running line.
Just got back from 50+' casts into a 12-kt wind and my 2" of yarn on the end of the 7' leader.
This combo would be a joy to fish, and if I can make it to Cibolo Creek, will fish this over a Teeny BS-100.

I may get to one more line - Airflo Ridgeline WF5F ("supple Trout") - this thin line is really well-behaved in all my cane and glass...

...I'm back and found perfection. The WF5F Ridgeline with a 9' braided-butt leader goes fishing with 4' of front taper past the tip.
It will do anything you want, dries, any distance, moderately forgiving, and no friction in the guides.
The longer front taper of this line, long leader butt, with a short length of belly is all the DT you need for close fishing, and should work the same on a furled leader.
This is also the best reel I have to match the rod (the poor man's CFO), though it's about the same weight as the JLH.


A third line comes to mind, BPS 10-m DT5, my preferred floating line on the Lami 605. I put that reel in my fishing bag in case I get to the creek. But I expect to only test my extrapolation, that the little Harnell won't fish with less than half of this line out - hope to post again with the result. Noteworthy, my '60 Harnell catalog lists this rod as a 5-wt (HEH).

Anyway, it's not surprising this little rod is actually a distance rod.
It's a powerful 5/6-wt para taper in a compact package.
The surprising part is that it wants to dry fly fish well, if you work out the right parameters on line and leader.
Anxious to find out how it roll casts, but I'm betting well.
Comparison with FF605 and FF535: between these two, I found the latter to be a better roll-caster - you expect both to be good close-fishing dry fly rods, but don't expect them to be good distance rods.

Hi Chris, I'm enjoying the rod and very much enjoyed the casting comparison.
I was really happy to discover my initial evaluation of the rod tapers played out in the casting.
Also recognized the Fisher hadn't been out of the tube since 2003 on Quartz Creek in Cooper, and it was a joy to cast.

Using a Teeny for this comparison is perfect, because every foot is 5 grains. Of course they no longer turn over when you get to the end of the head, but comparing how they handle 100 gr v. 130 gr in the air is still a great comparison.
Also hoping I'll be proved wrong about the BPS 10-m DT5, and will keep you posted...

And no, I specifically didn't get out at 100 degrees, but low 80s in the morning before the sun got tall, and I had everything organized to beat the heat.

The choice reel from my gang is the Browning Strada MZ34, aka Martin LM45 - we dubbed these the poor man's CFO.
I've had 3 new boxed reels, but sold one, and will never part with either of the other two - they're just too perfect on short glass rods, especially with a WF5F.


You could improve on this with an even lighter reel (small JAF Avon, Hardy Flyweight) - the problem, though, is fitting a line in the reel - could always cut off some of the running line behind a WF.