A little history lesson
In the earliest days of my recollection, my youth, and the days of paying my dues, I met some of the men that made the greatest contributions to surf casting as it exists today. There was little if any regulation on surfmen then, and you could ride virtually every stretch of sand year round. These guys had buggies of all types, shape, and size. My old man had an old panel truck, locker rear end, with balloon tires that he aired down to flats to get on the beach. For longer duration stays he had an old bread delivery truck, with rough bunks built in, and every piece of Coleman equipment you could get at the time. The vehicles had rod racks made from pine boards screwed through the metal, and spring clips to hold the rods. On the way to the beach, we would stop at the local ice rink and fill the coolers from the piles of shavings at the rear of the building.
There was a shop that we went to on the way to the shore, that carried only what you needed. A custom rod shop, Murat's Bait and Tackle. They had a big metal Striper, lit up with neon, that you couldn't miss as you drove down the old cart path known as rte 146. That road is now 4 lanes wide and constantly grid locked in front of where the old shop once stood.
Charlie Murat was a cantankerous old cuss, weather worn and wrinkled from the blowing winds and pounding surf he felt at home in. You could buy any reel you wanted from him, as long as it was a Penn. They distributed Harnell for the entire east coast, but sold the original Lammi's as well. They carried Gibbs and Atom lures, and eels. Many a time I was in the shop, Stann Gibbs and Bob Pond (Atom) would be standing side by side, coffee in hand talking about Bass with Charlie.
Dave Hammock, Charlies son-in-law, would be in the back turning rods, and overseeing the other guys doing the same. Dave was cut from a differant piece of cloth. Charlie didn't especially take to kids and thought they were nothing more than a nuisance. Dave would take me under his wing.
By bicycle I would ride to the shop, around 4 miles from my house, and pull up to the back door. I would peek in to see if Dave was there, and make sure Charlie was out of sight. If I could get through the door, and make it to the stool near Daves bench I was golden. Charlie would let me sit there as long I made it in without him seeing me.
All the contract builders in the shop, paid by the rod, did all the production work. Charlie, Dave and Butch, did all the custom rods. They were the ones that tailored to the the guy that was buying it. They also had more thread work, and made the stuff I wanted to do. I would sit and watch, as Dave went through the process of cutting the rod to length, in order to get the action the buyer wanted, splining the blank, setting the seat location, and applying the grips. There wass a lot of cork back then, and cork tape was just coming in. Dave would then explain how to stress the rod to locate the stripper guide, and go over laying out the rest of the guides. The entire proces was to tune the rod to what the fisherman wanted to do with it. I still use those methods I learned from Dave, and completely disregard guide spacing charts that come with every blank.
I will continue to build this thread, along with some pictures, as time allows.
God is Great, Beer is Good, People are crazy.
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Originally Posted by Stripercoast1
