F.E. Thomas Special 7½ ft.
~F.E. Thomas Special 7½ ft 2pc/2 tips, 3.9 oz with its locking reel-seat. This is one of those very special Thomas rods I would describe as "Very Fast Dry Fly." In the old Thomas catalogs I have, Fred Thomas talks about making "dry fly, fast dry fly, and very fast dry fly" rods; judging by the dramatic swell combined with very fine, fast tapering tips, I judge this to be the very fast dry fly taper. It is astonishingly fast and will cast a DT4 or WF5 line, the heavier line slowing the action just a touch. According to the Thomas ledger the rod dates from 1940 which also puts its weight at 3⅞ oz. It has the very nice touch of variegated green/black tipping just above the grip and the ferrules which I believe was only done for a short time, reverse twist 'English' snake guides and the delicate knurl on the rim of the butt cap pocket. Did Thomas also use butternut like Leonard did? It looks that way to me on the reel-seat spacer. Rod is in great shape for its age with varnish not needing attention and slight ridging of the cork grip as you can just see in the photos. In original bag and Thomas labeled tube. SOLD Click on smaller images to enlarge
