rod most anglers have owned

[chub_on_the_block]

Don't forget back in the 70,80s and before, it was very popular to make up a kit rod or a blank.

Yep...i was well proud of owning a Terry Eustace 11ft fibreglass Big Tench rod in the early 80s - with my name on it and all. As for blanks, it was Normarks for me.

You can always look back with rose tinted glasses but I bet if you had them now how many would use them, things move on lads.

The biggest down fall of these old rods is the sliding band reel seats, horrendous things.

Totally agree. However, i must be the only one out here who still uses sliding ring reel seats and actually prefers them. So long as they work OK of course.

 

[S-Kippy]

The Shimano Specialist was a cracking rod that is a twin tip. I have a pair and they are very versatile.

Highly regarded....and still fetch good money second hand. Never had the pleasure of using one.

My first ever carbon rod was a Normark. They were highly rated and quite common bankside.I thought I'd died and gone to heaven first time I used it but it replaced an Abu mark vii so by comparison a kick in the George McCalls was a more attractive option than a day trotting with that munter !

 

[Bob Hornegold]

Nothing at all wrong with the J W Avon, I had/have the original twin tip Avon and caught some good fish on it, compared to Cane and Glass it was a joy to use.

Yes; the Duplon handle was rubbish, but most of my friends changed it to a cork handle.

I still use the butt section every day to turn the only tape player we have in the house on and off

Bob

View image in gallery​

 

[Tee-Cee]

I did have a 14' Featherlite rod back in the late 50 early 60's with the bottom and middle sections made from hollow bamboo and the top made from twin spliced tip of split cane. Cannot remember who made it. but it is still in the loft ( far corner )

Amazingly, I used to use it in 6 hour matches on the middle Thames trotting hemp and berry some 50 yds...happy days !

I also had several rods by Shakey and Daiwa c/w non screw reel retainers, all of which ended up in the loft after one reel fell off and into the drink whilst playing a fish. Takes a long time to retrieve 100 m of line just to get the reel back !
S-kippy will know what I mean and he has my sympathy around his recent ' line retrieving ' escapade......

Still have the reel though...


ps Call me a silly old fool, but I used many Bruce & Walker glass rods x 10/11' long for floating crust fishing plus a bit of tenching and they certainly did the job........once again the reel retainers failed to live up to expectations !

 

[S-Kippy]

Sealey Octofloat must have graced a few holdalls too. I had the Efgeeco holdall but never owned an Octofloat. When I had scraped together enough money I was seduced by very shiny Rodrill Yellowhammer which I used until I bought a CTM.

 

[robtherake]

I suppose budget rods like the unlovely Shakespeare Strike (never owned one, but fished with one) would bear consideration for those of a certain age. The Alpha and Wand rods were also pretty popular at the time: I owned the latter, and wished I'd bought the former rather than my ABU Mk 6 (2 or 3 ozs heavier.)

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:17 ----------

Totally agree. However, i must be the only one out here who still uses sliding ring reel seats and actually prefers them. So long as they work OK of course.

The Roberts Realfits type were a big improvement on the metal jobbies, like the ones fitted to my Drennan Waggler and bomb rods. A bit of inner tube rolled onto the handle kept the rear reel fitting firmly in place.

 

[Keith M]

My 11ft J.W. Avon Quiver was bought in 1977/78 and had a full length cork handle and in those days there were very few if any Avon/quivers on the market unlike today.
I bought my son one of these rods a few months later with a full length duplon handle; you could choose between either cork or Duplon handles then.

Yes there were better rods on the market if you could afford to spend more money even in those days but the old 11ft J.W. Avon/Quiver was an excellent rod for fishing on small rivers and streams after Chub using the quiver tip; which we did a lot of then; and I used to use the Avon tip for touch legering for the smaller Barbel of up to around 4 or 5lb that inhabited one of the small streams we used to fish then.

If I am fishing for large Chub on small very overgrown streams I will still very occasionally use my J.W. Avon/Quiver especially when the rod will need to take a lot of abuse from bankside vegetation and overhanging branches.

As others have already said; later versions of this rod beared few resemblances to the older versions but 35 years ago it was a well respected rod.

Keith

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I did have a 14' Featherlite

. . . no comment!

 

[Tee-Cee]

It's true - honest !!

Actually I may go look, just in case....

Love the ' no comment ' though...

Hey Peter... I see your mob have drawn my mob in some Cup comp or other. I've got
50p that says we will thrash you. ( no point in wasting a lot of money ! )

 

[binka]

Again not a serious contender but I reckon there would have been a fair few of these knocking about back in their day, a really sweet rod with a lovely finish and I'd snap it up just for old times sake if I were a little more flush.

A rod I remember very fondly, I think I had one for my fifteenth birthday...

*** Vintage DAM Ian Heaps Quickstick Match 13' float rod** | eBay

 

[robtherake]

Again not a serious contender but I reckon there would have been a fair few of these knocking about back in their day, a really sweet rod with a lovely finish and I'd snap it up just for old times sake if I were a little more flush.

A rod I remember very fondly, I think I had one for my fifteenth birthday...

*** Vintage DAM Ian Heaps Quickstick Match 13' float rod** | eBay

Nearly bought one from Cash Converters a couple of months ago, before working out that I already own 15 float rods (not counting the glass ones lurking in the attic.) mg:

**** me, mate; the one in CC was only about a tenner complete with the original red bag and in pretty good nick, too. 90 notes seems a bit steep, even for a minter.

 

[greenie62]

DAM Quickstik -13ft
I still have one - without the Ian Heaps branding - bought about 1982 - £72 iirc.
I modified the cork handle 'cos I didn't like the reel retaining rings - removing a section and inserting a Fuji clip reel seat. I still use the rod nowadays - blanked on it twice last week! mg:

Haven't seen the Fuji reel seats for ages - does anyone still use them?

 

[binka]

I still have one - without the Ian Heaps branding

That was the one thing that was baffling me greenie, I don't recall the Ian Heaps branding on mine either but I'm sure that's the rod I had especially with that almost flouro red, velvety feel bag.

 

[greenie62]

..., I don't recall the Ian Heaps branding on mine either ....

I have a vague recollection that Ian H got sponsorship from Woolies/Argos/Great Universal Stores so a Ian H-branded version was sold via their catalogues - maybe?

 

[wes79]

good old Woolworths, still going strong........in Australia

home of the 6ft blue fibreglass fishing rod (no brand name needed.....they sold themselves)

good old Argos....shakespeare or was it DAM the dark brown match rods that came with a disgorger, some bits and peices, were perfect for extreme Gudgeon fishing and stalking the Bullheads Happy days got bought one in late 80's/early 90's.
Still got the DAM match rod, not even the original in my possession as a lad, came with auctioned tackle, a bit weird that should turn up again, happy to see it and it has a sleeve to, not used it though.

 

[trotter2]

Ian heaps was also sponsored by Silstar ,the light line series of match,float and avon rods were superb in there day. Only some of the silstar traditional range strangely had his signature above the handle.

 

[sam vimes]

Ian Heaps was sponsored by both DAM and Silstar at one time or another. You don't have to search hard to find examples of rods of both brands bearing his name.

 

[steve2]

I have a couple of Ian Heaps, Silstar 11ft canal rods. Lovely light rods, just right for small stream fishing. Also use to use them for small carp on the commercials when I fished matches.

 

[robertroach]

I bought a Silstar Match GT rod many years ago, but the top 3" broke off like a carrot soon after. With a new top ring fitted it has become my favourite rod for all sorts of fishing including livebaiting for perch, ledgering for chub and barbel and even floatfishing for garfish and mackerel off the Chesil Beach. I fitted a new handle from an old Abu rod recently to improve on the old original sliding reel fittings.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I bought a Silstar Match GT rod many years ago, but the top 3" broke off like a carrot soon after. With a new top ring fitted it has become my favourite rod for all sorts of fishing including livebaiting for perch, ledgering for chub and barbel and even floatfishing for garfish and mackerel off the Chesil Beach. I fitted a new handle from an old Abu rod recently to improve on the old original sliding reel fittings.[/quote


I did much the same with a Silstar Ian Heaps trotting rod, I didn't break the tip but fitted a screw down fitting, after that it was spot on and I had some really decent fish on it.