I have an old fly rod given to me by a neighbor, probably close to 25 years ago. He was clearing out his family’s cottage and literally came walking over to my house with his arms full of old rods and reels, then went back for a second trip and came with two big tackle boxes. There were three A&F rod tube in the pile, but only one contained a rod. I used it off and on, not fishing all that hard, mostly for blugill and the occaisional small bass, but haven’t had it out for the last 10 or so years. I have an opportunity to get out on some trout streams with an experienced fly fisherman, but wonder what the value of such a rod is (if it is worth more than it’s “working” value). I appreciate old things, and like to use them for their purpose, but if the rod has a high value might consider selling it and buying a newer, more replaceable rod.
Try this website. They might be able to give you a better idea. It is solely dedicated to fiberglass rods. It looks as though it was made by Phillipson and sold by A&F. http://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/index.php
The rod was built by Phillipson Rod and Tackle Company of Denver in the late 50’s or very early 60’s before Phillipson was sold to Johnson Reel Makers. The Phillipson version of this rod differed from the A & E rod in that it had red nylon wraps instead of the green wraps on your rod. The Phillipson rod sold for around $20.00 and I would suspect the A & E rod was similarly priced. I purchased one of the 8’ rods in this line in 1960 and fished it for a number of years.
Thanks for the information. So would you consider such a rod to be sought after, or should I look at it as use it and enjoy the nastalga of having a piece of vintage equipment? Sorry, not familiar with Phillipson, nor could I wager a guess as to weather an A&F branded rod would be more or less valuable.
First of all welcome to FAOL. Stick around and you’ll learn a lot. I started here over 12 years ago and have been unable to leave. I’ve also met a lot of great folks here. Some on-line and some in person. As far as the A&F rod goes, you could get in touch with Robert Selb. He knows a lot about all kinds of rods and reels, and I’ve heard only good things about him. If it was my rod, I’d fish it. Here is a link to Robert Selb’s website. http://www.classicflyfisherman.com/
Have fun and again, welcome aboard.
Thanks for the additional information. I hadn’t forgotten about this post (or forum), just been extremely busy. I’ll check out Robert’s website, in the meantime I plan to fish the A&F rod.
Chuck;
A big welcome aboard from an ex Michigander:D. The Pere Marquette, the Little Manistee and the Muskegone were my home waters.
There will be a few of us from the board staying in the Grayling area June 26th to July first. You can read about it in the “Fish In” forum under the Michigan Fish In. Hope you can visit and wet a line with us.
I hope you don’t think I was SPAMing your forum. As a moderator on another forum, that was the furthest from my intentions, really wanted to see if the collectable value outweighed the working value of the rod, which seems doubtful unless I found someone obcessed with A&F gear. Had it out practicing this last weekend and also casted my “newer” rod as well (it is an 80’s, store brand graphite rod I bought a few years before this one was gifted to me.) Definately like the feel of the old rod over the newer one, and plan to keep using it at least for the meantime.
