Being a Pflueger guy (angler of the male gender) almost from birth, I long believed that satin black with alu accents was the one true color. When my grandfather died, I was shocked to discover (he was a discrete and private man) that he also had an Ocean City 35 and a Sears, both on-off click reels. The Sears was red, so I immediately gave that to my brother, (not a sissy by any means, but a kinder gentler guy than I am), but I kept the satin black OC. At the dawn of the multicultural era in the seventies, a man (a retired Marine) I respected rocked my world with his gray (battleship gray) Martins. I had to have one, and for a while gray was the one true color. Gradually, I have gotten used to diversity. Bulldog had the best looking red reel I ever saw. I think he sold it but still has the photo. A great color, but not the one true color because in the new age, we know that all colors are good colors. So anyway, I never paid any attention to color matches because, like socks, gray and black go with anything. But now I play with colors just like the rest of the world. If you have a glass rod intended mostly for panfish or bass, then trying some automatics opens up a new world of color schemes. From the sultry south to the austere north, you can find a color to match the angling culture, your mood, or your rod. Garcia made some gaudy automatics--well all automatics are gaudy, except the conservative gray and black Martin 81s which, being a thing of the past--I have two-- are not shown in the photo. Instead, the photo shows a couple other automatics: a red-edged Martin and an alu-powder blue. In the next fly reel marketing era, we will have nature-derived names for these hues, like rose, lilac, lupine, mica, shad-roe, salmon, mountain laurel, apple blossom, melon, lime, coral, avocado, salsa, and pesto. "Sunset" could work, too, but it's already over for "blue-sky." Then I had to put in a Gladding-South Bend multiplier in burgundy red (Hellsgate) about as handsome as they come. The other multiplier is from the same maker, but was beat up when I got it, in that miserable, down in the mouth, dark leaden gray that only an Englishman would love. So I painted it, and this is my last point. There's not much harm in painting working class reels to your liking. Some, like the Martin 67, were painted to begin with. Get a beat up spare for $15 or $20 off eBay and spray away to your heart's content. Then coat them with clear enamel or polyurethane. That's what I did with the MG 7 in the photo which, if you saw it bent and scratched when I got it, you would think was ready for the trash. Having nothing to lose, I did a quick and sloppy job. Nevertheless, the second time I used it, a guy asked me which model Hardy it was. "Oh, it's a PMH," I said. He nodded knowingly, but I don't think he really knew that model designation (Poor Man's Hardy).
Posted: 02 May 2007, 12:27 • 
