OLD ROD'S

[Gav Barbus]

Just make sure you don't strike to hard with the glass fibre rods as they have a tendancy to split in half if you are over enthusiastic!! got a lot of old glass rods a good number of years back and sadly none are still about as all fell to the same fate except one which I snapped scrambling up the Bollin with my own weight.
I have to say they felt great ,and was a little sad to see them go especially as they got me back on the bank and caught me some good fish (wipes tear from eye).
Was the snapping thing a problem back in the day? or is it something to do with glass fibre not aging well? any clues.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Well ill use them as often as i can and report back with the good bad and the ugly with no other reason than fun and see how far we have moved forward which we have but maybe lost a little on the way too.....we wait with baited breath as they say......Nick (csg) what reels do you match your rods too.

 

[Neneman Nick]

Mitchell , Abu ,Intrepid plus i have a pin reel as well.

Just remembered,i have a milbro rod as well. It has gold foil on the whippings.

 

[fred hall]

I still have a Shakespeare Match International 13ft glass which gets the very occassional outing. It has a superb action for playing fish but in general I must agree with the consensus that such rods are inferior to modern carbon examples.

 

[Wizzy (Chris Martin)]

I cannot compare glass to carbon from personal experience.

I started fishing in 1970 or thereabouts (yes 38 years ago) /forum/smilies/eye_rolling_smiley.gif and glass is all I know!

I am not a ludite nor a technophobe and I do believe in modern advances (I work as a product design consultant), but I have had a 12 year break from fishing due to heavy work commitments and a little out of date.

My glass float rod was bought for me in 1973 and it has never let me down (thanks dad). In glass's defense all I can say is that it is neither heavy nor ill balanced, it is 13ft long with a beautiful action and the whipping and eyes are all original and to me has stood the test of time.

Actually it is not the only rod type as I do remember using a cane taken from the inside of a roll of carpet fished with 18lb bs on a size 12 for roach /forum/smilies/crying_smiley.gif

I know, i know... but i was only a kid at the time /forum/smilies/dont_tell_anyone_smiley.gif

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Well Monday fishing was wet, cold and later 40mph winds but used the fibre glass float rod with a puddle chucker float ......feel was a little awkward (but not heavy) and casting was really good hitting the target area in fact stunning for me. Fish were not feeding so not a good day but a learning curve.

 

[blankety blank]

Nick said "As long as you enjoy using them,who gives a toss what others think...i certainly don`t."Iagree mate. I've got a wonderful old glass tench float rod, made on a Simpsons of Turnford blank, at 13 feet. My mum's cousin made it, and gave it to me 25 years ago as my first "proper" rod.I treasured it, and, matchedwith a Mitchell 410,I used it for everything, including tench, roach, carp, pike, barbel etc.Then carbon came, and over time I got tooled up with carbon rods for everything. But,a couple of years ago, I found a lovely clear tench lake to fish, where tench could be taken on the float at short range.I had no modern rod to cope with this, so dug out the old glass.To cut the story short, I did my pb, at one oz short of 8lb. The reserves of power and forgiveness in that glass rod were unbelievable. To top it all, i was using the old Mitchell 410 as well.What was best was the fact that this was a rod that my cousin Tom Craven had lavished so much care on to make, and had then given to me. Obviously I still have it, and i will still use it when circumstances allow. Its like an old friend.

 

[The bad one]

For those who hven't see it this thread is interesting regarding glass rod

ERC

Much of the factual comment is written by a guy who really know what he's talking about, as he and his farther owned the company.

 

[The bad one]

As for my own experience of glass rods as an "older person" I have some found memories of personal milestones in fish captures. First big carp 1970s, but I don't talk about ratfishing/forum/smilies/tongue_out_smiley.gif

First 20 lb pike, first double figure bream and the many that followed over the years I used glass for them. First tench over 6 lbs, first 2 lbsroach, first double figure zander and on the list goes. They served the purpose at the time and caught the fish I was after so dismissing them as no good or rubbish is wrong in my view.

I still have a lot of those rods today and if I'm hounest for about 80% of the fishing I do now, Icould still use them and catch the fish I'm now catching on whatever carbon mixmy present rod are made of.

I'll make this comment about glass v carbon, in all the time I used glass I only ever broke one rod under fishing conditions, thats playing, landing fish and casting.

I'm up to4 rods broken with carbon under those conditions todate. With glass you can overstress it to a factor of two v carbon, and it forgives you. You can't with carbon, it goes bang!

Do I still use any glass rods today, yes, when the cercumstances call for it. E.g.,small river fishing for chub, I use a rod I built for my son 25 years ago. It's a 10 ft 1 1/4 lb test Hardy fibretube blank with fuji lined rings. It's such a sweet rod for thisjob it's a joy to use. Also for piking at sort/medium range, I'll use twoNorthwestern 12 ftSalmon blanks I made up 20 years ago for big deadbaiting. They forgive the over stressing they get when casting and have the reserve power in the mid/lower section to tame big fish.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Ty for your informative comments bad one, how do you think age will compare i believe carbon does go soft or am i wrong.

 

[BarryC]

Still have my old Sealey 11ft featherweight float rod that comes in at a mere 8.5 ounces according to its transfer. A lovely little rod to use and lighter than my Daiwa float rod but that is 13 ft.

 

[Julian Pardoe]

I took over a bankrupt R C Kirk Ltd in 1966. Bob Kirk was a rod builder for Pegley Davies in East Molesey. He had a 'complicated' private life & went bust! I, with my late father, moved him to Norfolk & founded <u>The East Anglian Rod Co</u>.(EARC)

From 1966 to 1976 (when we made our first carbon rods) all EARC rods were fibre glass. I remember Bob Kirk telling me he believed fibre glass 'bruised'. He meant that if it got a nasty knock, all would appear to be OK, but then sometime later...usually months... it might well break at the 'bruised' point.

We certainly took great care to see that our thin walled blanks (mostly from LERC in France) were handled carefully during the rod building. These were the green Tipster float rods; theSwingster leger rods &, of course, the Ken Smith....the first ever commercially made quiver tip rod. If only we had been smart enough to Patent quiver tip rods!!

The thick walled beachcasters & boat rods seldom gave us any trouble with breakages.

If any one is interested there is another thread on this website about EARC.

 

[Tee-Cee]

I have and use regularly Bruce & Walker 10' &11'6"long Avonswhich are a joy to use!Theymay be 40+ years old but still do the business be it with carp or barbel.They still have the original finish and neverhad a coat of varnish ever-not because Im lazy but because they just seem okay without.Great for roving and perfect for touch ledgering and when bent into a big(ish) carp the action is down to the butt!!

If I wanted to replace themit would be difficult to know where to start!!

Until recently I also used a Shakespeare 13' glass match type rod with action right through the middle.Again great to use and well able to handle tench up to 8lb+.

This rod was superseded by a Drennan'Big Tench'rod which also does a good job but in all honesty it really doesn't seem to have anything over the glass job.

No doubt others will disagree about glass(and I'm not fixed on old tackle asI have carbon rods etc)but I would like to hear what real reasons can be offered that suggests/confirms carbon etc to be the dogs goolies!

 

[The bad one]

Here are some of the reasons why it's claimed carbon is better than glass. I do not necessarily agree with them all.

It's a lighter material

True but not sure of how much per unit of weave cloth. For rods that are held all the time, fly rods and trotting rods, that is a great advantage. Those who fished with glass rods in this mannerneeded arms like Desperate Dan to trot all day.

It's a more ridged materialand therefore canbe made longer.

Again true, hence the longer and longer trotting rods 14,15 and 16 ft rods are becoming the nor these days. It's pick up at longer distances is greater thanglass and hookability increase through it. This I believe to be a true most of the specialist glass rods I've got from about a 1 lb to 2 .75 are 11 ft I have equivalent carbons and the pick up is faster, of that I have no doubt.But at shorter distances 25-35 yards I'd question whether it matters a great deal.

Its progressive hoop strength is greater

This may well be true, but it still doesn't like quick shocking or over stressing, having the tendency to go bang. The cheaper end of the market I personally don't think has much if any advantage over a goodglass blank where shocking and over stressing is concerned. And expensive blanks don't fair much better in this category either. I've broke them as well.

Sadly no one does good specialist glass rod anymore and therefore we will never know how good they could have been given the advances in blank manufacture and resins. So we are left with assessingold products against new ones made on modern equipment.

 

[Wizzy (Chris Martin)]

"Sadly no one does good specialist glass rod anymore and therefore we will never know how good they could have been given the advances in blank manufacture and resins. So we are left with assessingold products against new ones made on modern equipment."

So true the bad one, I wish we could use today's advanced technologies to compare glass with carbon but the market is tiny in comparison with only youngsters coming on the scene wanting to buy the "latest" fashions.

I remember my mate when we were children being bored from catching sweet FA all day proceeded to whack his 6ft solid glass pike rod against a tree several times without being able to break it (yes he was determined). We were both amazed at the damage it caused to the tree bark but not a scratch on the glass just a dented rod eye. If carbon were solid I wonder how it might have stood up to that short of rigorous punishment?

Carbon is naturally stronger than glass but lacks the same flexibility. Fortunately carbon can be made thinner/lighter and glass composites allow it to be flexible.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

Glad to have your expertise Bad One this started out as an oddball question after i was given a13ftAA Aurorfibre float then got a 12ft Grove Sudbury match rod cheap at auction and now has got to a good little debate and what has suprize me is not everybody is against fibre and there are areas where they are very good ....thanks to you all.

 

[Tee-Cee]

The bad one......now that's what I call a bloody good reply-great stuff!!!

Factual,to the point and a fair assessment-makes a refreshing change!

Its amazing how such a simple thread can produce good info...........

 

[The bad one]

We strive to please if we can! Thanks for the comment.

 

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

I recently gave a FT Trotter to a friend who only usesg/fibre rods.

It's not much good for pulling chub out of rushes he said, wish I hadn't bothered now.

 

[Treeve wayward casting Harding]

just to keep you all updated i am going plugging for pike in a couple of weeks using a g/fibre rod so watch this space