Old Sportex Rod

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help? A friend of mine showed me an old rod today. I'll try and get some pictures later if it will help. It was amde by Sportex of Sheffield. It's a ten foot "Leger Major".

They asked if I could give them any information on it, I couldn't. It's in mint condition with brass ferules and made from glass fibre. It is sloppy compared with carbon (as you would expect) but it felt as if it would be ideal for fishing the Wessex river for barbel where a quick pick up would not be as important as palying the fish. It was light browny in colour and had a strange reel seat. This could be positioned up or down the handle and then with the reel in position secured in place, a good idea I thought. Also it was a three piecer, with the cork handle being the short piece and then the top two parts being of equal length just over four feet each.

A very different design to many rods about now and it looked as if it would have been quite inovative amongst its contemparies (just a feeling). I'm going to have to borrow it or at least take them with me so that I can get a proper feel of how it performs.

If someone knows any history nof the company or even the actual rod I would be grateful.
ps. Looking online it appears Sportex is now German. Is it the same company and if so how did it go over there so soon after the war?

Thanks Matt.

I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong.

I thought that sportex blanks were green, at least the rods I had were. Also that they tended to be tip action?

John Howard said:

I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong.

I thought that sportex blanks were green, at least the rods I had were. Also that they tended to be tip action?

Click to expand...

Not all of them. I made up a twelve foot float rod on a brown Sportex blank many years ago, which served me very well, landing plenty of accidental carp hooked whilst roaching on 20 hooks and 1.1lb line. Eventually the tip had an unprofitable encounter with an overhead branch, from which it never recovered, though I continued to use it for a year or so with a spliced tip.

The rod in question sounds typical of a late 1960's/early 1970's dedicated leger rod; similar rods were made by Allc0cks (who became Shakespeare), Milbro (who became Daiwa) and Sealey (who simply disappeared). Whilst it won't be as light or responsive as a modern carbon rod, nor as posh as a cane one, it'll still be capable of landing good fish for many more years - long after the current crop of carbon tubes have self-destructed. Stuck in a rod rest a bit of extra weight won't matter anyway.

The company were situated just around the corner from Sheffield Midland station and they made both float and ledger rods. They were good bits of kit to have in those days and I understand from a friend who used to work there that many rods were made for others without the Sportex name on them. The blanks (in the main) were a golden brown colour. I dont remember any being other than that but I may be mistaken as it was so long ago.I still have one of thier ledger rods that is ideal for stalking smallish carp in hard to get places.

Sportex of Sheffield were originally located on Devonshire Street. The firm was run by David Chetwode who owned a vast country estate near Blyth - Notts. A river ran through his property - The Ryton.

Tag Barnes was the rep and general dogsbody with Ken Littlewood, a competent match angler running the stores.

The glass blanks, which were state of the art at the time, were made in Germany and were yellow to "straw" in colour. The rods made varied from a 3 piece reservoir fly rod which quite honestly was not very good, to the excellent Tag Barnes Carp Rod and "Hornsea" pike rod. Steve Crawshaw and myself were very involved with the design of Sportex rods, happy hours being spent checking on the actions and test curves.

The range of float rods was quite large and included a "boys" rod of 10 feet in length and a general rod called the "Rytun", after the river Ryton.

I got to fish Chetwodes stretch of the Ryton on several occasions. It held average chub and roach, and huge dace; and I mean huge. I had them to 1lb 4oz. Tag had a few just over 1 lbs too.

These were the early days of the Northern Specimen Group, and very happy times they were too.

---------- Post added at 12:43 ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 ----------

Major George David Chetwode, b 1914 was one time ADC to the governer of Bombay. He married Lady Willa Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound. I Have a faint recollection of Lady Willa. She was very aristocratic, yet an extremely kind and generous person.

She had more money than sense of course and was mostly involved with her horses.

According to the various peerage lists, "Chetty" (as he was known to his friends) and Lady Willa are still alive.

Thanks for the replies. I didn't say but it belonged to the recently passed on father of my friend. Her mother is coming down to visit next week and I know that she will be interested in some history concerning the rod.

I took her fishing about two years ago (the daughter) and after initially being a bit sceptical we caught a few Mackerel took them home and before the end of the evening she was gutting her own fish and saying they tasted better than fish from the shop ( I could have told her that.).

Anyway, I think I'll have to get her catching some different species with her dads old rod.
Again thanks for the replies. I'll try and get some images up in the next couple of days, as I say interesting design, not like my more modern or indeed my older rods.
Cheers

I had a Sportex "Rutilus" rod - it was a deep golden brown. Lovely action, but it met with a sad end when the fibreglass beneath the handle cracked!!!

The "Rutilus" was an experiment using very thin walled glass to achieve lightness. It was never intended as more than a light roach rod, hence the name.

What memories!

But like lots of glass rods of that time, many people thought that they were unbreakable and used them for all sorts of unsuitable jobs, like the idiot who used to throw 5 oz leads from the beach using a "Billy Lane Match Rod"!!

Ron, sorry to have to inform you but -
CHETWODE
Lady Willa. Peacefully at home on 6th May. Very dearly loved wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Funeral at St Peter's Church, Upper Slaughter on Friday 14th May at 2 p.m. Family flowers only please.

Looks like she's deceased, this year too.

PS I have a Sportex Kevlar/Carbon rod for carp/float fishing, usually use it for controller work. Beautiful rod, but I wouldn't mind the handle being remodelled to be a fully cork one rather than a split neoprene one. Make a great barbel rod too!

Oh dear, I never really knew her.

She would be 86 years old. Chetty will be 96. He has done well for a guy who was wounded in WWII.

Welcome back Ron