I inheirited an antique flyrod from my father in law last year.
Split cane or bamboo, 101 1/2 inches long, 2 pieces (includes an extra end piece - total 3 pieces), aluminum reel mount. I’d guess a 4 or 5 weight.
It has no logo or identifying mark on it anywhere.
Family history tells me that it was a gift to my father in law in the early 80’s and originally was purchased in Scotland.
It has caught many, many trout on the Humber river on the west coast of Newfoundland (my F-I-L was an expert fly fisherman) and now resides with me in Arkansas.
I’ve looked around the web, but haven’t been sucessful on finding any real info on how I might go about finding out where this thing came from.
Getting an ID on that rod may prove difficult. I would suggest taking detailed pics of the rod and making them available so someone here could lead you in the right direction.
Just so you know, we are all looking at the pictures. That pinned reelseat may be a clue, the color too, might be impregnated. Hang in there,
On second thought, I don’t think it is…
Pat,
That is a lovely old rod you got there, it should give you years more use.
It appears to me that there is no delamination - i.e. the glue is still holding all the sections together.
I’d go with JC’s first impression that the rod is impregnated, I see that the wraps are varnished but suspect that the rod sections are not.
Is the reel seat aluminium or is it nickel silver?
As she comes from Scotland I would not be at all surprised that it may be a Sharpes from Aberdeen.
At 8ft 5inch she should be sweet for a 5/6.
I’d have that straight to the shop and get the pro’s to check her over and do a full rebuild, using all the original fittings if they are still good. You HAVE to keep that reelseat
I wish you many years of enjoyment and lots of success with her.
Thanks for sharing
Roy
What do you intend to do with it? Refinish and use, or refinish and hang on the wall, hang on the wall as is, fish it as is, sell as is, refinish and sell? Lots of options.
Well, I’m definately going to keep it and fish with it. And I’ll look into refinishing it. I don’t want to do anything that will have the potential of messing it up though.
I got the fishing bug last year - bass fishing and catfishing with my sons.
And then this rod and reel (a Pfueger Medalist - model number 1495 1/2 DA) fell into my life and I got interested in the trout.
I got a friend to take me to the Little Red River here in Arkansas and give me some pointers and instruction on casting, and have been practicing that. I’ve been fishing with it a few times since then and have had a bit of success both on the Little Red and the White.
I have also been trouting on the Humber a couple of times when I’ve been in Newfoundland and caught a few.
It is a perfectly absorbing hobby, isn’t it?
It combines several interesting aspects: The gearhead part of me loves obsessing over the mechanical bits, the adrenaline rush of a fish hitting a fly and trying to land him, the hope that everytime you go out you’ll catch a big one, hitting the river just as the sun is coming up and reveling in the beauty of the world and I have to say that the trout are a pretty tasty meal.
Here are another couple of bits of info about the rod:
It was already old when my F-I-L’s rich girlfriend bought it for him and was very expensive even then, and it was almost certainly bought in 1981 in Scotland.
Noway that is a Sharpe’s rod.It does not look impregnated either. It has to be American with those ferrules and reel fitting, definitely not British.
It appears to have been re-ringed at least once, and revarnished without stripping off the old varnish, those rings are not original.
This looks like an Orvis rod to me, possibly a kit rod from Orvis, or theres a chance it’s been refinished and the writing was removed from the shaft when this was done. If that’s the case then the rod is impregnated and will be easy to refinish to like new condition.
i’m gonna second the Orvis kit, the ferrules and winding check look like Orvis and I seem to recall seeing that reel seat or one like it…Although the older Orvis I have has “waisted” ferrules, I don’t know how long they did that for…
I would agree that that is either a Sharpes or Orvis Blank.That blank looks like impregnated cane to me. Sharpes made blanks for Orvis for awhile, using Wes Jordan’s impregnation, and also made the Leonard Duracane blanks using the Orvis process. I have a Sharpes Scottie 7’0" 4-5 that has the pinned buttcap and a similar winding check.Maybe a kit rod with custom ordered hardware.
