John Wilson rod identification

[luckystrike]

I was hoping someone could tell me what rod john Wilson is using in these episodes of Go Fishing.
It looks very much like a Daiwa, definitely not a masterline or Northwestern like in the earlier videos.

YouTube

YouTube

 

[luckystrike]

YouTube

 

[luckystrike]

YouTube

 

[tigger]

I think Wilson was my favourite of all the celeb anglers. I watched his go fishing videos as a youngster and enjoyed them, as I still do. I always wanted to meet him but not much chance of that now!

Regarding the rods, as far as I was aware he only ever used his own brand rods in his videos, but may well be wrong.

 

[sam vimes]

I suspect that the black ring in the cork handle might be helpful. I know Shimano were fond of this feature back in the day. However, having found (original) Diaflash and Powerloop models with it, it's much higher on the handle that the rod in the videos. I can't recall seeing a Daiwa with the black ring, but that doesn't mean they didn't ever do it and my memory is pretty rubbish anyway. However, with it being John Wilson, there's a fair chance that it's something that JW put together himself.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I'd have thought the very early Wilson programmes predate his own brand rods; certainly I always thought the JW Avon/quiver rod was the first by a few years and it wasn't until later that the float/pike rods followed. It's also possible that as a tackle dealer he had blanks made up to his spec. On the other hand I've got a 1986 vintage Daiwa Cavalier quivertip rod with the black band about 5" up the handle.

I had the pleasure of dinner with him once when my publisher invited about 8 or 10 of his writers to an event where we sat down to dinner afterwards. It was a lively evening....

 

[sam vimes]

I'd have thought the very early Wilson programmes predate his own brand rods; certainly I always thought the JW Avon/quiver rod was the first by a few years and it wasn't until later that the float/pike rods followed. It's also possible that as a tackle dealer he had blanks made up to his spec.

It's the latter that I was getting at, not that it was a Masterline/Wilson rod. I seem to remember reading (it might have been his autobiography) that the very earliest versions of the Wilson Avon were made up to his spec in the tackle shop.

 

[tigger]

I'd have thought the very early Wilson programmes predate his own brand rods; certainly I always thought the JW Avon/quiver rod was the first by a few years and it wasn't until later that the float/pike rods followed. It's also possible that as a tackle dealer he had blanks made up to his spec. On the other hand I've got a 1986 vintage Daiwa Cavalier quivertip rod with the black band about 5" up the handle.

I had the pleasure of dinner with him once when my publisher invited about 8 or 10 of his writers to an event where we sat down to dinner afterwards. It was a lively evening....

I had some really old looking wilson ryobi quiver tops once. The tips were kept/stored in the handle and had a metal thred and cap on the end to keep them in place, similar to the drennan im8 and im6 feeder rods which have a rubber bung.

I've heard a few people say they met him at shows not that long ago really and they thought he was an ignorant fellow! I would imagine he may have been fed up chatting with lots of daft anglers.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I had some really old looking wilson ryobi quiver tops once. The tips were kept/stored in the handle and had a metal thred and cap on the end to keep them in place, similar to the drennan im8 and im6 feeder rods which have a rubber bung.

I've heard a few people say they met him at shows not that long ago really and they thought he was an ignorant fellow! I would imagine he may have been fed up chatting with lots of daft anglers.

The Daiwa tip rod stores the tips in the handle with a rubber bung to keep them in and similarly the original Shakespeare Wand had the tips in the handle with a screw on butt cap.

You're spot on with JW (and others) getting fed up at shows like the old NEC ones. I was talking to Chris Yates once at the NEC when I glanced over my shoulder to see 20 people in a line waiting to talk to him. Chris said, "Keep talking, maybe they'll drift away!".

 

[luckystrike]

Another unidentified rod here that he’s using in the Grayling centrepin video

 

[sam vimes]

They seem to be making it fairly difficult to identify the rod in the opening Hampshire part. Perhaps the decals have been toned down, but they are never clear and legible. However, the rod is vaguely reminiscent of one of the Drennan IM8s. JW does mention it having had an extra ring added.

No idea what the Dorset rod is, but it looks more like a Masterline offering.

 

[Alan Whitty]

He did make a lot of his own rods in his shop in the early days of the programme,so it might be difficult to identify the blank even,I hated having the name of the blank written on my rods,so if I had them made up would ask for it to be removed...

 

[@Clive]

I naively thought that he would be using Masterline John Wilson rods.I also noticed that he didn't have the JW Young 'John Wilson' reel in his collection. I think I've been had.

 

[sam vimes]

I naively thought that he would be using Masterline John Wilson rods.I also noticed that he didn't have the JW Young 'John Wilson' reel in his collection. I think I've been had.

In his defence, IIRC it predates the John Wilson reel by quite some time. He was using what looked to be a Purist in the first (Hampshire) part of the episode. It may be a Masterline JW rod in the second (Dorset) part of the episode. It's definitely not the same float rod he was using in the first bit.