graewolf.fiberglassflyrodders

137

Location: North of Weaverville in the Walnut Mountains NC US

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Bio

Who am I?

I grew up in the piney woods of south Arkansas, slapping out popper bugs on those muddy creeks under old wooden bridges with a beat-up Featherlight, for bream, bass and gar. I remember even catching some catfish in those days with that old rod, which didn't even have a reel attached to it. I just granny-knotted the line on the end and roll cast it out. But on my first day out with that beautiful yellow rod, I caught a bucket full of hand-sized bream (blue gills) with that little rubber-legged popper and I've been in love with fly fishing, and fishing in general, ever since.

In my life I've been lucky enough to have I've traveled and fished and hunted all over the world, from Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, many islands in the South Pacific and Caribbean, and many countries in Africa and Europe, shores, rivers and lakes and swamps all over North America, both salt and fresh water fishing for all kinds of fish, but I think I still remember that hot summer day in south Arkansas those many years ago as a kid, alone fishing under that wooden bridge with that old Featherlight, as being one of the best days I ever had on any water anywhere. And that's what it's all about isn't it? That's what our love of fiberglass fly and spinning rods means to us I think, a return to a time of simplicity, a time when the world stood still and we were one on the water, a time when we were content, and everything was "now."

My contentment ended, for a while at least, when at seventeen I joined the Navy and after boot camp I shipped out to Vietnam, as a plane captain (crew chief flying in C47s) on the U.S.S. Enterprise in the South China Sea. After one year and 127 combat missions over Vietnam, I finished out my enlistment at the Naval Air Station in Rota, Spain.

After college and graduate school I joined the Peace Corps and served in Ivory Coast, West Africa which is where I met my wife who was also a PC volunteer. Christina Rosalia (see her namesake rod in the first photo below and then see the real thing in the last photo below) is my best friend, my personal inspiration and has been my mystical muse for the past 31 years now. We moved around a little when we got out of the Peace Corps, from Miami, Chicago and Little Rock but we have lived in North Carolina for the past twenty years and these mountains are now, and always will be, home for us.

We love hiking and fishing in these mountains and the arts & crafts & culture of the mountains too.We have four grown sons, an artist, a park ranger, a philosopher and a fireman, in that order, oldest to youngest. Christina Rosalia is a psycho-educational therapist and I have been a commercial illustrator (what a combo huh?) for magazines and books since 1972, and for the last 20 years or so I've specialized in illustrated maps.

You can see my work on my website at: www.mapsbymikereagan.com

To all my brothers of the angle: I wish you well and may peace be with you on the streams and rivers, ponds and lakes, the shores and bays, and out on the deep oceans.

Favorite photos

My most loved rod "Christina Rosalia" built for me by Gypsy on a 7' 9' LamiGlass honey blank.

First trout I caught on the new Christina Rosalia, a nice rainbow on the Oconnaluftee River in the Smokies, near Cherokee, North Carolina.

A close, but not too close, second favorite rod & reel: My Phillipson MF80 & JW Young Beaudex. Nice for bigger water.

A few of my beloved JW Youngs and an old Ocean City.

And my Airex Air-Flex rod and Bache Brown reel.

Some of my favorite fishing places:
One of my sons matching the hatch on a beautiful Fall day on the Occonalufte River in the Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina

Davidson River, North Carolina

Shelton-Laurel River, North Carolina. Those are Middlemac's rods & gear.

Firehole River, Yellowstone

Vermilion Lake in northern Minnesota

Fishing in Galway Bay, Ireland

The Black Fort on Inishmore, Aran Islands, West Ireland

The cottage on Inishmore, Aran Islands

The Cabin on Vermilion Lake, Minnesota

And finally...the one and only original and real Christina Rosalia!