For sale here is a historically important Paul H. Young Special DeLuxe - 7 1/2" 2/2 2 7/8 oz. The rod exhibits a light dry-fly action with a 5 weight line. Excellent original condition with the exception of the butt section having been reset and re-wrapped by South Creek Ltd, who did a superb job matching the silks and the spiral pattern.

The stamp "Maker Paul H. Young Detroit, MI" has only been seen a few times on other rods made in this era. The "Deluxe" version of the Special model had the owner's name hand-inked by Paul on the butt section. The original owner's name, "Frank Farnum", is hand-inked on one flat, "Detroit 7-1-42" on one flat, and "7 1/2' - 2 7/8 oz." on another flat.

Paul Young started making his own blanks around 1946, so Paul made this rod from blanks sourced by one of the rod production companies at the time (South Bend, Heddon, or Edwards). The cane is varnished and some glue lines are apparent. No cane is exposed however. The reel seat is cap and ring over cork. The butt cap is not stamped. Oxidized hardware. Nickel silver ferrules are size 12/64 and the ferrules seat fully. The half-wells grip with thumb indentation is in good shape, just soiled and minimally ridged. Decorative jasper wraps. Random node pattern. The wraps and varnish are in excellent condition. Both tips have slight fishing sets in them, which is attributed to the blanks sourced externally before he set up his own milling machine. As you all know, these sets can be straightened with heat; whether the sets return varies from rod to rod.

This would fit well in any Paul Young rod collection. Finding one from this era with its unique features is not going to be an easy task.