Winston Stalker

This legendary series of fiberglass rods was introduced in 1974 by Winston, just after Tom Morgan bought Winston in 1973. The Stalker is one of the rods in the 'rods of fame' frame in the museum at the Winston factory I visited a few weeks ago.

Not much has been written about this rod series. I have no idea how many Stalkers were built & sold over the years and how many are still used today. Here's an amazing and very elaborate article by Tom Morgan on what he did after requiring Winston in the 1973 to improve the quality of fiberglass rods sold by Winston.

A few quotes by Tom Morgan along the years about the Stalker:

"... Before buying Winston in 1973, I had enjoyed fishing light line #3 and #4 bamboo rods. I thought that similar fiberglass rods would be popular, so I designed the Winston fiberglass Stalker Rods to add to Winston's already great line of fiberglass rods that were custom-made by the J. K. Fisher Co."

"... because of the delicate touch and "feel" they provide along with their fish playing attributes, I've always been a fan of fiberglass rods for fishing in the short to medium distances where most trout are caught."

Mistakenly labelled as 'Stalber' 😁

"... The Stalker Series of glass rods completes a longtime goal of ours, to provide fishermen with a glass rod that has delicacy and lightness of our Leetle Fellers. They have been designed to fish spring creeks where the utmost precision is needed in presenting small flies on light leaders.

The rods are supple enough to play large fish on light leaders with a minimum of loss. They are not designed to be all-around trout rods to cover all situations. Since their introduction, they have become our most popular glass rods. Once you use one of these rods, it will soon become a favorite."

"... unfortunately, the J.K. Fisher Rod Co. who made our fiberglass blanks quit making them in the early '80s and I was forced to quit offering them. I was extremely unhappy with this circumstance even though the regular angler was buying mostly graphite rods. I still think that fiberglass fly rods have an important place in an angler's repertoire of rods."

Update Jan 5, 2022:

This very unique letter from 1974 Tom Morgan wrote to Harry Darbee was sent to me by Harry Darbee's daughter, Mrs. Judie Darbee Vinciguerra Smith. In this letter Morgan writes about the new Stalker fiberglass rod series he just introduced.

I also found this Winston ad in Fly Fisherman magazine 1975 spring issue

A nice short video of Julie Arnold of Headhunters fly shop in Craig, Montana fishing a Winston Stalker:

Rubber soled wading boots are slippery!

Remember those rubber waders or hippers with those hard rubber soles? Wading with these were hazardous for your health. Fast forward 35 years and we now got wading boots with felt and rubber soles with fancy names like Vibram (Simms) and Rock Grip (Patagonia).

I have been using felt soled wading boots since 1992 and I really love them for their very secure grip. Only on the most slippery algae covered rocks can they slip a bit. For my recent trip to USA & Canada I left my felt sole wading boots at home. Because of restrictions of felt sole in certain areas in Montana and Yellowstone National Park, I had my first introduction to rubber soled wading boots.

On wading (safety) these boots has been a huge disappointment. I rarely feel insecure when wading, but after the first steps I was very cautious with these rubber soles. I started the trip with the Patagonia Ultralight wading shoes and tried the Simms Freestone later on to see if one rubber type is more secure than the other. The verdict? They both sucked... How is it possible that even after 10 years selling these rubber soled wading boots, the manufacturers still haven't nailed this issue?

"...proven Vibram® Idrogrip rubber outsoles for powerful grip". Really Simms? 😂

With rubber soles adding cleats is a must to get a secure grip. Ask if your fly shop has experience with adding the cleats. Adding cleats is serious stuff as my first cleats installed at a fly shop came off real easy. I tried with five cleats on each boot and that didn't do much. My experience is that you need at least 10, preferably more, cleats per boot.

Update 20 Sep 2019:
Here's a review of a the new Simms Flyweight wading boots. The boots are nice indeed, but in this review they talk about the superior grip/traction of felt soles over rubber soles.

Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

My last fishing day of the two week trip to BC / Montana / Idaho. Dusty suggested we go to Yellowstone National Park and fish the Slough Creek or Lamar river.  I didn't plan to fish in the Park this trip but it's nice to be back. It has been a while I visited the Park. I think the last time was in 1998.

Since Slough Creek moves pretty slow (almost like a lake at some places) we headed for the Lamar river. During the night there seemed to have been some rain causing slight discoloration of the water. Along the way we did see some discolouring but it didn't seem that bad.







Fishing in the park means that wild life is every where. Along the road means that visitors will stop to take pictures. The first herd of bisons is like 'Wow!', but after the third and fourth stop it, how odd this might sound, becomes tedious.





We decided to try the smaller nearby Soda Butte first and get to the Lamar river later on. The cool weather of the previous day didn't stay. I'm not sure at which altitude the Lamar river area is but the temps went up pretty fast. The sky was still a bit hazy due to fires of the past weeks.





Maybe the many days of fishing started to wear us out but fishing wasn't as hot as the temperatures. The idea of bisons around us kept me alert. At one point a lonely bison was about 150 meters away from us. I certainly was not as concentrated as I should have been because I missed a few nice fish. After lunch we moved to the Lamar river. No noticeable increase in fish activity here.







Colt having a Lamar flavoured instant coffee


It has been a wonderful trip. Many moments of the trip flashed through my mind as I fished upstream of Colt and Dusty. It's remarkable how fast the second week blazed through the days. Meeting old and new friends was the highlight of the whole trip.

Thank you guys and hope to see you soon!

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Fiberglass Clave 2018

After the amazing fishing with Dusty and Colt, another great event was waiting, the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston. The venue was the Sacagawea Park, along the banks of the Yellowstone river. Unfortunately Chris Barclay couldn't join the Clave, which was a huge bummer.

I think there were about 20 attendees from all over the country. Some, like Mike McFarland, drove 27 hours from Bellwood, Pennsylvania to Livingston, Montana. That's some serious scenic route he and his friends took.

I arrived around 6 PM at the venue. Several rod builders were setting up the table with their rods. Among them Livingtson Rod Company, Bob Hallowell and Mike McFarland.

 

After dinner the casting of the rods, talking about tapers and lengths went full swing.

Colt Johnson & Mike McFarland

Me casting with Jamie Anderson

Around 9 PM Dusty kicked off the raffle. The prizes to be won was pretty impressive. Fly lines by 406 Fly Lines, hats, T-shirts and sweaters and three rods donated by Chris Barclay, Livingston Rod Company and a collaboration rod by Mike McFarland/Bob Hallowell. I won a T-shirt, sweater and the McFarland/Hallowell rod!

The three donated rods for the raffle

The three lucky guys

Tomorrow: my last day of fishing of this trip...

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip

Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

After fishing two days on the Henry's Fork I left the Angler's Lodge in Island Park, Idaho around 7 AM and took the route to Montana this time via Ennis, Noris to Livingston for my next get-together with Dusty and Colt.

I stopped briefly at Raynold's Pass. A well known stretch on the Madison river where I have fished in the past. This is, together with the stretch at the 3 Dollar Bridge, probably the best stretch to wade fish the Madison river outside the park.

Along the way to Ennis I saw the El Western Lodge where Tom Morgan's parents used to operated, back then, the motel. Barely 100 meters further down road 287 is the O'Dell spring creek where Tom used to guide the motel guests when he was a kid. A nice piece of fly fishing history that doesn't seem to have changed.

A stop at Madison River Fishing Company down town Ennis is mandatory. This fly shop was one of my main supplier of fly tying material for many years before the internet. The ownership changed some 5-6 years ago. After getting an obligatory hat of the shop, I continued my way to meet Dusty and Colt at George's shop in Livingston. I arrived at the Yellowstone Angler around 10:30 AM.

Being a local, Dusty knows the streams only locals know. He asked if we wanted to catch some nice native cutthroats on hoppers. Well hell, that's what we're here for! 😀 We headed for about 45 minutes drive to a tributary of the Yellowstone river. Driving along a dirt road, the scenery turned into a hills filled with burnt trees. I know forest fires are nothing unusual here, it still looks barren and desolate. A more milder temperature (around 22 C / low 70's F) was a nice change from the heat of the past week.

We geared up with light rods. Dusty brought a light rod from his new fibreglass series (yet to be released) while Colt brought his five piece Lamiglass he built himself. I had my Scott bamboo with me.

The stream, some parts barely 3 meters (9 ft) wide while the widest part being about 5 meters wide (15 ft), was filled with fallen trees providing shade and hiding spots for the fish. Navigating upstream was challenging as we had to climb over trees with nasty leftovers of branches.

As we leisurely moved upstream while taking turns on spots, fish were eagerly taking the offerings. The cutts were surprisingly large for the size, type of water (freestone) and altitude. Most fish were around 8-12 inch, while fish caught in the 15-16 range aren't uncommon here.

Every interesting spot seem to host one or two nice fish. Spots where overhead cast was awkward, a bow-and-arrow presentation did the trick.

We used various hopper and beetle patterns. I used my Alien Bug and the cutts seem to like them.

After a late lunch Dusty had to leave early to prepare for the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston later today. Colt and I decided to move upstream. The weather seem to have cooled down slightly and the wind picked up a bit. While we fished for another hour and a half, we kept on catching (and loosing) very hungry cutts. The sky filled up with clouds and eventually it started to rain lightly. We decided to call it a quits. A few final casts resulted in the best fish of the day for Colt. With a handsome 15-16 inch cutt we wrapped up an amazing day.

As we walked back to the truck, wind gusts started to intensify. Not long after we drove back down the road it started to rain. Talk about good timing.

Next appointment for the day: the Fiberglass Clave in Livingston

My 2018 USA trip:

1) Upper stretch of the Elk river (BC)

2) Visit to RL Winston rod factory

3) A day with George Anderson on the Armstrong Spring Creek (MT)

4) Backcountry fishing in Montana

5) West Yellowstone

6) Henry's Fork - part 1

7) Henry's Fork - part 2

8) Henry's Fork - part 3

9) Cutthroat fishing with Dusty & Colt

10) Fiberglass Clave 2018

11) Last day of the trip - Soda Butte & Lamar (YNP)

12) Drone video of my BC / Montana / Idaho trip