The first thing you notice isn't a fish. It's the heat coming off the Florida flats in 1954.

A 22-year-old kid from California is standing in a plywood pram with a bamboo rod, binoculars in his

pocket, quietly tailing the best guides in the keys. Joe Brooks is somewhere on the island. Ted

Williams is too, and the kid is about to stumble into the early days of saltwater fly fishing without even knowing it this is the wet fly swing

podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing how to find

the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to

give back to the fish species we all love that kid is Jim Adams and he grew up to

become one of the great fly fishing book and gear archivists over the last 70 years. Today you're going to learn how fly fishing ideas actually evolve. What makes a bamboo rod collectible? We're going to find out how rare reels are found and fake. I'll also talk about some of the authors who shaped modern angling and what nearly a century on the water teaches you about fish,

gear, and life. It's all here today. Let's jump into it and hear all the stories. You can find

Jim Adams at Adamsanglingbooks.com. How's it going, Jim? Fine. Great to have you on the show here

today. We've done a number of episodes over the years on vintage gear, you know,

just the history of fly fishing, really. And I'm excited to talk to you because you have, you get into, you know, books, gear. You have a lot of rare and vintage books. I want to talk about that today. I want to, I see some reels on your website that there's some pretty expensive reels as well. And I want to hear about the background

maybe to help some people, you know, find out where they can get access or if they want to get

into this, you know, this range, this field. But take us back real quick. Before we jump into all

the rare and vintage gear, have you been in fly fishing for a while? What's your first memory?

Yes, I tied my first fly in 1943. I was born in 1932, and I'm 93 years old right now.

And I was lucky enough to be able to retire when I was 54. And I've been fishing around the

world ever since. No kidding. Yeah. That's amazing. This is going to be fun because we've done a number of episodes actually with plenty of people in their 90s. I think I'm trying to think of the last one we had on, you know, but it's great because I feel like there's something about fly fishing. Maybe it's the outdoors, maybe it's the getting out, but it keeps you healthy, right? Do you feel like what's your secret to your success? Your 93 93. You're feeling good out there. How I've done it? Yes, actually, it's my passion in life, and it's helped kept me pretty healthy, and I have some problems right now because I broke my big toe over Norway in 2019, and they were going to cut my toe off, and I pleaded with them and they sewed it back on and everything else.

And I can't walk as well as I used to. And I used to do a loss of tarp and fishing, bone fishing down on the Florida Keys. And I can't push, pull a tarp and bow around anymore. I don't have the sense of balance. I'm just too old. Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. But yeah, that's amazing. Maybe take us to the website, adamsanglingbooks.com.

When did that start?

When did all this kind of the website?

My second wife was a librarian in school.

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