Thursday, August 12, 2010

why fiberglass trout rod?


It's about time to fish for trout (for me). I am all excited about the coming trip to fish the western rivers, then a thought fly over my head: why not let's talk about trout rod? I have a gradually growing collection of trout rods... most of them are fiberglass rods, some of them are graphite rods, all has it's own character and role to fish them... but the one I enjoy the most is made from fiberglass material... why? not sure how to answer it, but let's read the famous interview from Fiberglass Manifesto first... then we can go from there... Larry Kenney is the one of most import rod designer in the early Scott Rod Company. He and Harry Wilson (Scott rod founder) created the highly sought after Scott fiberglass rods in the 70' (San Francisco era). If you are lucky, you still can find one on ebay, just be sure you put $800 or more into the bid if you really want it...
Quote from Larry Kenney Interview in Fiberglass Manifesto LINK "To get good accuracy, good leader turnover, and decent tippet protection from a light line rod, particularly a short one, you need a supple but controllable tip section, supported by mid and butt sections that let the tip do its work at short range and accept increasingly more of the load as casting range or fish resistance increases. You can build that tip section from graphite, but getting the suppleness you need demands either a very small diameter or a reduced wall thickness. There are problems with both choices. If you choose a thin wall, you risk creating a fragile blank. If you reduce diameter you need very small diameter mandrels around which to roll the graphite, and the resulting skinny graphite tip sections frequently don’t fare well in the rough and tumble of real-life fishing.

There are some pretty decent light line graphite fly rods available at 8 feet and longer, but in shorter lengths I’ve generally not been impressed. The path too many graphite makers have taken to make shorter #3 and #4 line fly rods has been to put the bend necessary to move the line into the butt section. The results, to my way of thinking, are pokey rods with stiff, slow moving tips that make for poor near-range accuracy – one of the very qualities you want a short rod for in the first place. Fiberglass’s greater flexibility and more reasonable diameters lead more directly to light, supple, effective and durable tip designs..."
continue reading LINK

2 comments:

Cameron Mortenson said...

Mark...you well know how wonderful fiberglass and trout mix together. Thanks for linking TFM on your blog...again. I look forward to your out west trip reports and photos!

BLUEANGLER said...

Indeed Cameron, trout and fiberglass...or sometimes a bit "spicy" of graphite on top... ha... you know I am talking about nymphing! : ) Good job on the interview! and interviews!... I have reread it many times and enjoy it every time.