OLD ROD'S

[Kevin Perkins]

Treeve

I still use a 10' glass spinning rod made from a 70's Fibatube blank. It will easily hurl a 1oz Toby lure well over 80 yards.

Ithas been thoroughly abused by me for years, cost very little, and is one of my favourite rods.

Use your glass rod and enjoy it..!

 

[Julian Pardoe]

I am not surprised. Fibatube was one of the very best blank makers in the 70s. Hardy's used the name 'Fibatube' to sell blanks to the other rod makers. We, at East Anglian Rod Co (EARC), were once told by Jim Hardy that we were their largest UKclient. It would have been quite uneconomical for them just to make the blanks they needed for their own rod production. By selling to others they got the economy of scale, which enabled everyone (themselves included) to get blanks at a reasonable price. Or, what was perceived at that time to have been a reasonable price. The capital price of the machinery needed to make fibreglass blanks was very substantial at that time. Amortisation had to be built into the cost of the product.

God knows what Hardy/Fibatube thought when they saw the price of FINISHED fibreglass rods that started to come in from Korea in the mid/late 70s! They were less than the cost of their blanks.

However, I digress! Your comment, Kevin, does not surprise me. I believe that of all the rod types (float, fly, quiver, spin, boat, beach etc) fibreglass was most suitable for spinning rods. Try using a 10ft glass fly rod on a Scottish loch with a sinking line from a boat. Knackering! Carbon Fibre, no problem. Beachcasting with fibreglass..hard work. Float rods often had the wrong balance &, unless back-weighted, could be unwieldy. Probably the nearest fibreglass came to carbon was in short fly rods & swing-tip/quiver tip rods up to about 9.5ft.

Most people do not realise that is was EARC that produced the first quiver tip rod. Fibreglass 9.5 ft (the KEN SMITH). Made from the top 2 sections of a 14ft Lerc blank with integral quiver. One of our salesmen sent his sample back to us saying.."you must be joking. This rod will never sell". Within 18 months it was our top selling rod. Sadly neither EARC nor Ken Smith patented the quiver principle. I digress again. That's enough!!

 

[Kevin Perkins]

Hi Julian

Great reply, as always, can you PM me when you get a chance?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[John H Member of THE C.S.G.. & The A.T.]

Probably one of the best rods I ever owned was built on a Fibatube blank.

I built the rod in summer of 1976 (the hot one) whilst on a caravan holiday at Richmond, Nth York's. It started off as a 10ft one piece blank, fitted a spigot and a cut down broken section for the handle it ended up a little under 12'. Never yet found a carbon rod to equal it.

The whole rod including blank, corks, reel fitting, whipping silk, dope varnishand rings cost me less than a tenner; apparently there was a large number of 'fire damaged' Fibatube blanks going round the NE tackle shops at that time.

Afew years later I got hold of the 3pc Trotter blank, again these were sold at a silly price. I eventually gave the rod to a CSG member who only ever uses glass rods. When I asked him what he thought of it he said; (in his Leicestershire accent)'dunt think it'll be much good for dragging chub out the rushes' Ungrateful sod! Perhaps he still uses solid glass rods.

Glass Vs Carbon, itsvery similar to the valve Vs solid state amp argument with some old rock guitarists /forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif............................................................................................tapping fingers in wait of reply

 

[Wizzy (Chris Martin)]

Well this thread is so ironic /forum/smilies/crying_smiley.gif

I went fishing for chub today on the river Aire and within 1/3 hour of arriving at a chosen swim got into a hell of a struggle.... not so much from the fish that was on my line but he had swam upstream from within the margins and managed to snag around some tree roots /forum/smilies/disappointed_smiley.gif but if that wasn't bad enough my rod tip also tangled around some overhead low branches!

I was in an impossible situation... double snagged and a big fish on the hook /forum/smilies/angry_smiley.gif

I say its ironic simply because after all this time I was notified by email that a response to this thread has been posted and at the same time (the very same day in actual fact) - it coincides that my fibre glass rod tip got broke!

Whilst im very sad for the fish which undoubtedly will suffer from being snared around those tree roots or which may be towing around my float and 6lb bs line, I cannot get it out of my mind that my trusty rod has broken after using it for the best part of 36 years!

I feel so guilty for having such selfish thoughts. After-all, a rod can be fixed or replaced but... oh that poor fish.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Hopefully the chub will be caught very soon wizzy. I didnt intend for this to be soley a glass Vs carbon but a bit of that is fine with me i am taking a 12' foot glass match rod plugging for pike in a couple of weeks but i may keep my eye out for a 10' glass spinning rod . I intend to keep using carbon rods and glass in my course and fly fishing ( not that ive tryed a glass fly rod yet) i dont want to dismiss old or new.

Fishing was just a hobby but is becoming a passion and trying different rods from over the years is part of that ..........by the way thanks to all for your posts on this thread you have been brilliant.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Treeve

I only just saw this thread andforgive me but I'd like to throw a different light on it...

I started fishing when I was about eight years old in 1978 - for a couple of years with a Milbro solid glass 7' spinning rod, then a 10ft unbranded hollow glassfloat rod. When I was about 12, I was given a Shakespeare 12 footcarbon float rod (a complete surprisechristmas present, I literally couldn't speak for about half and hour, my mum got all upset cos she thought it must be wrong,fact is I just couldn't express myself!)

That rod changed EVERYTHING in fishing for me. Every single part of what I did improved - casting, playing fish,float control. I suspect it may have changed my interest from keen occasional angler, happy to gowith his brothers or his mates,to complete obsessed (in the way only a 12 year old can be!) spending every spare hour by the river.

So I guess there's still some of us who look back at the advent of carbon as being where it all began?

Can't believe I missed this thread at the start, it's brilliant!(child no 2 arrived at the start of november though, so I mayhavebeen a bit busy!)

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

everybody can join in and throw what ever light they want on this thread jim and you have given an good insight on how a lot of people started out fishing , i love old stuff that is useable and can be used so i will join the two hobbies but still buy new because my casting altough still wayward is better with carbon rods.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

well on wednesday 11th of Feb on a lovely day i ventured up to the king sledgemoredrain frommy home in the gateway to kernow with a 1960's 7ft glass fibre spinning rod and black prince reel and a couple of plugs for my first time pike fishing.

Rod cast great, but itook a while to get used to the black prince and the water was very high which added to my lack of pike fishing knowledge meant no records broken but a nice day there andat the bridgewater canel.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I havebuilt and ownedwhat I would consider some very nice glass rods over the years, would I swap back from carbon? No, not on your Nellie,carbon rodsare better in almost every way. If you enjoy using old tackle then that's fine we fish for pleasure and if that's what pleases you, who can argue against it.

Thefirst car that I bought when I passed my test was a; Minor Thousand Traveller. I drove one a little while ago, what a pile of sh*te. The brakes felt that they may stop you................eventually, every time you hit a bump it felt like someone had kicked you up the arse, there were toadstools growing in the window channels, the Nought to Sixty time had to be measured with a calendar and the heater didn't heat. Any modern car would seem like a Rolls Royce by comparison. Now there are seemingly sane people who form collectors and owners clubs who love these cars to bits, but for everyday use I know which I would personally prefer.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

oh i agree ...........rose tinted glasses and all that.......my first motorcyle was a B S A C15 and is light years away from todays machines ,my landrover discovery even though 96 model is far nicer than my 2A. I do use carbon and dont disagree it being better but ah i dont know cant put my finger on why maybe i am just getting very excentric

 

[BarryC]

Decided to give my Sealy Black Arrow an outing today. As the carp have been a bit quiet lately I felt fairly safe catching roach on a 2.5lb hooklink and size 18.

WHATAMISTAKETOMAKE

Managed to hook what was probably a double that towed me all over the pool for about 20 minutes until it found some twiggy bits to dive in where it managed to throw the hook (how do they do that)

Still gave the rod a good workout, nothing parted proving that with a little luck you can land good fish on well balanced tackle.

 

[Julian Pardoe]

Treeve 20.2.09...now there's a reel you do not often see mentioned on any thread..THE BLACK PRINCE. Wow, that is going back a bit to when spinning reels were made in the UK! This reel was made by the factory set up in Falmouth by Ken Morritt back in the '60s. Their cheapest bottom-end reel was a little thing called the BOY'O. The next from the bottom was The Black Prince. <u>It really was a very basic reel.</u> Front drag; no push button release; internal spool...not skirted. No roller in the bail arm, but it was ambidextrous! I cannot quote the line capacity with any certainty as the EARC catalogues say 108m or 220 yds of 6lbs mono. One must be wrong but, I suspect it was 120yds! (The next reel up was The Prince Regent & that did have a capacity of 200 yds of 6lbs.)

Some reelwith which to go pike fishing! Good thing you did not hook even a half reasonable fish. With the 3:1 ratio a big fish would have been hard work. We sold tens of thousands of these reels and, as I recall, the gearing was never a problem on this very basic reel.

When first introduced it retailed for about £1, and it was discontiued around 1980 when the factory could no longer compete with fixed spool reels coming in from Japan from firms like Ryobi, Daiwa etc.

The factory went on making fly reels, which through a metamorphosis became British Fly Reels Ltd,well managed byBarrie Welham & Tom Gould's Leeda company,until they sold out to Porter Chadburn in about 1990. Subsequently the business was sold to Orvis and, sadly, 2 or 3 years ago the factory was closed & production moved to southern China.

 

[GrahamM]

Julian, good to hear from you again, even if only indirectly. Hope you're enjoying your retirement.

 

[Phillips Jerry]

For many years i used a 10 ft glass feeder rod ,normaly used it while dinghy fishing witha centre pin, the abuse that poor rod took it never let me down. I eventually replaced it with one of these new anti lock carbon rods apart from being lighter and stiffer ,under pressure there wasn,t much in the action if any thing,on reflection the new rod was no better than the old one. In my loft I have a old reverse taper beach caster and i have no desire ever to use that again little better than a tree branch.

 

[GreyFox]

what a coincidence..

just seen this on Ebay..

ledger rod

 

[GreyFox]

and no......

it isn't me flogging it.......

 

[Phillips Jerry]

Still got my glass feeder rod,still use it when in the mood it,s one of those rods you never sell.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Just to let you know went plugging with my 7ft fibre spinning rod great fun used a black prince as well .Went at the beginning of Feb it was my first time plugging great fun no pike but water was very high. Just done waggler fishing since but not with a fibre rod .

 

[Green Drake]

As it happens I went to a local club lake this morning. I used a Milwards Swimversa (Bernard Venables’ favourite cane rod) coupled with a Match Aerial. Bait was corn on a size 16 to 2.5bs line. I have to tell you that this is a lovely way to fish so long as you’re not a baggin’ up freak. Yes, the rod is heavier than carbon but as it spends its time in a pair of rests what the heck. I had about a dozen bream to two pounds and a crucian of 3-14. Close inspection of the latter revealed two vestigial barbules so, sadly, it was not a true crucian. The rod behaved impeccably. I have quite a few cane rods including three MK4s. Again these are a joy to use and I’ve taken mirrors to 32 pounds and commons up to 27 pounds on them.

My glass rods include a pair of Oliver’s 11 foot carp rods, a 12 foot Oliver’s tench rod and an eight foot #6 fly rod from the same maker. These also get used from time to time. I had a 14 foot B&W CTM but that truly was a beast and probably my most expensive mistake. It now exists as a take-apart landing net handle!

By all means give your cane and glass rods a workout just for the pure hell of it. Ignore companions’ derisory comments because these will be outweighed by the number of compliments you are paid especially from old timers like me. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to use an old reel (typically a Mitchell) to match the rod. As often as not I use a decent Shimano – ancient and modern do work well together. However, for trotting work I always use modern carbons, but there again I have some 1990’s vintage carbon float and quivertip rods that I believe are better in many ways to the latest glitzy rod out of a Chinese sweatshop.