Pinky Gillum 7' 2/2 Trout Rod

SKU: VFT11793

For sale here is a super rare Harold S. "Pinky" Gillum bamboo fly rod in excellent+ condition. 7 feet with two sections and two tips. Original bag and tube with label in fantastic condition. This rod appears to be a late-era Gillum rod due to the serial number of 1-982. The widely accepted thought was that Gillum produced about 1000 rods in his career. The "1" in the serial number denotes a rod glued with resorcinol. The ferrules on the rod are Halstead step-down ferrules and I'm told that Gillum started using Super-Z ferrules around 1948-1950, but used the Halstead ferrules occasionally after this time period because he had a stock of them lying around and he reserved them for certain rods. The silks on the rod appear to be 541 Gudebrod as they are a bit darker than his normal copper/brown that we see, however the age of the rod contributes to the darkening. The gold/yellow and black silks on the winding check wraps and male ferrule wraps are classic Gillum. I've also learned that early in the 1950s he started using Cal Air tubes, which this rod is included with. Halstead made all of Gillum's fittings, rod tubes included. The tube label is also consistent with a later-era rod. The cane on the two tip sections is slightly lighter than that of the butt section. This is not uncommon, as Gillum often differed his tempering from the butt through the tips of a rod in an effort to get the most that he could from the taper he had designed for that particular rod, just as he occasionally altered his node placements and arrangements for that same purpose, not only rod-to-rod, but sometimes within a rod itself. The age and color of the wraps are consistent on all three sections. Don't miss this chance to own a Gillum rod in a very rare and desirable size as well as fantastic condition!