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Pflueger Supreme No. 577 and No. 578 Fly Reels

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SnookFly

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Remember these Pflueger reels? Circa 1968 to 1976. They were based on the Pflueger Medalist frame but with some modifications, had an anti-reverse feature that could be flipped on or off, a one piece spool, hefty drag and came in two sizes - 577 for large freshwater and inshore salt, and the 578 for bigger fish. At the time, they were pretty hot stuff. Caught my first two tarpon on the 578. They sold for $75!!!

 

Just for grins I wanted to fish the 577 and an old fenwick FF-107 rod this fall - kind of a retro night just to remember the "good old' days."

 

I can trial- and-error figure out the capacities, but was hoping someone might have an old catalog, or used to fish the 577 and remembered the backing capacity.

 

The pictures show the two reels and a spare spool, and an ad from Double Haul, the quarterly Salt water Fly Rodders of America magazine/newsletter.1000

 

1000

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Snookfly--Some nice looking reels you have there.

Anyway here's some info on them--hope it helps.

Pflueger owner's manual gives the capacity using mono so you'd have to figure out what 20/30 lb Dacron yardage might be

•577 - 250 yards 15-lb. Supreme Monofilament backing with 30 yards Supreme Fly Line.

•578 - 350 yards 15-lb. Supreme Monofilament backing with 40 yards Supreme Fly Line.

 

Fly Fishing in Salt Water by Lefty Kreh (1974).

•577 - 280 yards of #20 dacron with a SWT-9F line.

•578 - 250 yards of #30 dacron with a SWT-11F line.

 

regards

Ray Bondorew

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Thank you, Ray. Much appreciated. Rigging up tonight for a few hours before dawn tomorrow. Will try 250 yards of 30-lb on the 577 and a 9-weight floater. Somewhere in the late 60s I fished this same outfit with Armand one morning off the beach rocks with the Newport mansions behind us. It was a Rhody Flyrodders get-thogether. Great fun. Pete

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Great thread, nice to see these old classics being used. Back when I started fishing for bones in the 70's the Supremes were one of the favorite reels on the flats. A friend and his wife had a matched pair so I got to use one every so often; no way I could afford one then so I made do with Medalists.

"If you think fly fishermen are strange, try having a conversation with a mushroom picker."

John Gierach

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No shame in a Medalist! There used to be a guy down in Naples I seem to recall, who was producing parts to beef up a 1498 for salt; brass drag washers, counter weights (instead of the superglued steel nut) etc. Got a lot of mileage out of them in the 80s. I love seeing the old stuff being put to use, wish I saved some of mine...

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School striper from 1971 caught on a Pflueger Supreme No. 577 - 41 years ago when the reel was nearly new. Check out the fly - Pretty crude by today's standards but it caught fish. The flies with the Medalist are equally crude but that's what I fished with when I first started SW fly fishing.

 

1000

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Snookfly---sounds like you've been at this for a few years. Especially mentioning Armand, Newport mansions and Rhody Fly Rodders in the late 1960s in an earlier post. There weren't many fly rodders back then and we were considered odd ducks. Today everyone is a fly rodder or wants to be one. Your "Crude" flies of yesteryear pictured with your Medalist look great to me. The dark blue and white streamers in your picture brought back a few memories. I think that color combo was the thing around 1970. It seemed every SW fly rodder had a few. I for one continue to tie "Crude" flies and they seem to work just fine as they always have and will continue to do so.

 

The flies of yesterday are 'Shine it may-catch it must." where today's eye catching patterns are "Shine it must-catch it may."

 

Regards

Ray Bondorew

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I wish I still had my first fly or at least a picture. 7th grade, a snelled flounder hook, tinsel from the Christmas box and blonde hair I cut off my sister's Barbie doll. Held together with Mom's sewing thread and airplane glue. Looked like hell. Got me grounded for the doll thing. I used the snelled hook cos I couldn't fit the fly line through a regular hook eye. Amazing there was actually a tinker mac stupid enough to eat it as the Perrine automatic reel zipped the line in. Yes, I digress, sign of age but thanks for posting this and bringing me back there...

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I had the 577 and5 578 Supremes too, years ago, though I'd long forgotten their numbers. It took a lot more cranking to get tarpon in than today's reels. Snook, that 149X you got pictured there must be tough cranking with the drag cranked all the way down. :D

 

Cheers,

Jim

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wjc - I hope that's just the camera angle, but you're right that little drag knob looks pretty well cranked down. Wish I could tell you it's because I always catch big fish - LOL. First tarpon that ate my fly while fishing the 578 Supreme I lost because I did not firmly set the hook, the second tarpon that ate my fly was lost because I held onto the line until the hook bent and the fish got off. Yes, I caught the third one.

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Ray - That's a nice piece of philosophy - Shine it may - catch it must. Well said.

stormy - digressing is a good thing, especially as we improve with age.

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^^^ That's a great shot, I've got a few like that stashed away. If you're averaging 1 for 3, that's pretty darn good. I'm more like 1 for 10, which works for me 'cause the first ten seconds is the reward and after that it's a whole lot of work.

"If you think fly fishermen are strange, try having a conversation with a mushroom picker."

John Gierach

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  • 1 year later...

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