Organic Fishing Rods

Some time ago, in the Waterlog magazine, a great deal of comment was made regarding the desirability of using organic materials for fishing rods. Chris Yates has often stated that carbon fibre is only good for growing runner beans.

In the early days, organics such as cane and greenheart were common materials. Then along came glass fibre. Glass fibre is made from silica a non organic element.

Now we have carbon fibre. That's right CARBON fibre. Carbon is a non metallic element, hovever it is one of the building blocks of life itself. Most carbon used in industry today is derived from plants such as flax, nut shells, coal, wood products etc etc.

ORGANICS of course.

If any of the Golden Scale Club, Barbel Police or other traditionalist loonies beleive that carbon fibre is a non organic material, they are plain wrong. In fact many of the resins that are used to bond the carbon fibre are also of an organic nature.

Let us as modern anglers proclaim from the rooftops that carbon fibre is a true organic, is a perfect material for making fishing rods and is far more natural than glass fibre, which together with cane is more suitable for growing beans. In fact that's what most of the cane imported to England is designated to be used for.

Well ya learn something every day, I never thought about it before and untill you pointed it out it would never have clicked. I've heard the traditionalists oohh and aahhh at cane rods and say how much better they are because they are hand crafted for the job, but as you say carbon is just as natural and well crafted rods for all styles of angling.

You know what Ron, you`re dead right. However, there must be something about owning a lovingly hand-crafted cane rod that you cannot get from a mass produced carbon rod. I don`t own a cane rod myself but I can imagine the feeling being similar to having an antique mahogany writing desk in the corner of your living room as opposed to a flat-pack self-assembly job from B&Q.
Not only that but just look at the high prices that some cane rods are selling for.
I cannot ever see carbon rods becoming as desirable in the future, however much better a material for producing rods.

I always try and use the best tool for the job.
An unresponsive, overweight, top heavy, creaking piece of wood is nowhere near as good as a top quality carbon rod.

The aesthetics are in the venue, the tranquility and the company I keep, not in the rod sat in the rests.

Some years ago I had a touch of the nostalgics and fished with a Fred Crouch Barbus rod and a Speedia.What it did teach me was the importance of the margins as that is all I could fish !.
I do find that the traditionalists stop short of tradition when it comes to hooks and line.Only new will do.
Each to their own but give me a modern rod a decent fixed spool so I can fish the edge and far margin as well as the middle woithout getting my feet wet.

"The aesthetics are in the venue, the tranquility and the company I keep, not in the rod sat in the rests."

"the company I keep",......thats worrying!!!!!

Rik, each to his own. I`m not an cane enthusiast myself but can understand the reasons for owning one. People still use them and if they derive pleasure from this then that`s OK by me. Alright, so they`re heavy and creak a bit, so what!
"The aesthetics are in the venue, the tranquility and the company I keep, not in the rod sat in the rests." Right again, but take a look at all those anglers who fish featureless commercial puddles next to busy motorways. Not my cup of tea, but as I`ve already said, each to his own.

Ohhh...ahh...errrmmm...Rik..sorry to say it mate, but if u are using light floaters on a lightish line then cane is far superior to carbon. The weight of the rod allows much better casting and seems to soften the lunges of fish more than carbon.

I own several stalking rods, from cane through glass, carbon and amourphous carbon...and its the cane rod that gets used the most....coz its efficient at doing what it does. :O)

I would strongly disagree Rob.
Yes, I have owned several cane rods and used some others that were borrowed and without exception they were all sloppy rubbish compared to the crisp response of a carbon rod.

I have a crisp pick-up and an all through action on my floater rods and they are infinitely preferable to my previous cane ones.