Just picked up a Wonderod, and I’d really like to fish it. There are no markings on the rod nor reel seat, so I’m not sure what line weight it’ll throw. Google only helped me with approximate dates of manufacture.
(How I felt when I pulled it out of the box
)
Thanks!
It should have a line weight written on the side of the rod just above the handle. It will either be a number or a series of three letters.
If you can’t find any then just try casting it with different weight lines till it feels like it is loading the line and casting to your satisfaction. I’d start with a 5 weight line. Then go up or down a line weight till it feels right.
What is the length and weight of the rod?
8 1/2 and heavy.
The vast majority of 8 1/2’ Shakespeare glass rods were designed to cast 7 or 8 weight lines.
If it is indeed heavy with a stout butt section I would think it’s going to prefer an eight weight.
Useful for casting big bass bugs and streamers. Unfortunate that whoever cleaned it up used
something that removed all the markings. If it loads well with an eight you’re good to go. If it doesn’t,
the best thing to do is try one line weight up and down.
I have my Dad’s old Shakespare Wonder Rod. Best I can remember he bought it new around 1950. Dad passed on in 1999 and has been in my collection since; and one thing he did for sure was take care of his gear - the rod was in pristine condition. No markings on the rod base other then the name decal, but Dad always used a 5wt DT line. The original length called it an 8’ rod but do believe it was a tad shorter then eight, more like 7’10" - of course, one of the first things I did with the rod (love the way it casts) was walk into a tree with it (that took care of the very tip and so now it’s about 7’ 8" +). Now, I know how to walk with a fly rod, but do you think I’ll ever learn …? Show me a river that has only one tree on the bank in the middle of 500 yards and I’ll end up with some flies in the top of it. Like wise, hardly any trees around yet I’ll manage to walk into one with the fly rod tip!
I grew up fishing Wonderods and still have several in the shed. From what you’re describing it should handle a WF8F Bass Bug Taper great. I even used a 9wt. on mine with big bugs and short casts. Would power them out without false casting at all. Shakespeare did make some lighter rods but most of their stuff was for 7wt. and up in the 8’6" rods. I have a nice 8’ that is great with a 6wt. but 5wt. just doesn’t load it enough. Loved those old rods and have given several away to various charity groups but still have a few of them and Fenwick Ferrulites in the shed.
The older rods used a alphabetic system of line and rod weight. IE HCH which denotes a double taper line, front and rear tapered to size H and body is C. A GBF is a weight fwd bass taper. A level line would be a single letter.
An “A” line would be heaviest. As near as I can remender, a “C” was about a 6 wt. The rod should be marked with a single letter for the line weight.
The only problem with this system was that there was no standard for what a letter meant. It was up to the manafacturer. The American Fishing Tackle Manafacturing Association (AFTMA) adopted the present labeling system which is based on the weight of the first 30 ft of the line, thereby standardizing the labeling. Unfortunatly, some manafactures are playing games with the standard now. I owned two Wonder rods. A 9’ “B” and a 7’“C” Presidential which thought was the ultimate! I’d guess that your rod is a “B” which should be on the label, a 7 or 8 wt.
C was about a 7.
The problem wasn’t that there was no standard; there was. The problem was that it referred to the diameter of the line, not it’s weight. (“C” was .050 inches; “D” was .045, “E” was .040, etc) This worked fine when all lines were made of silk; one line of a given diameter weighed pretty much the same as any other line of the same diameter. When manufacturers started making line out of various plastic, with some lines designed to float and others to sink, diameter no longer meant much about how a line would work with a given rod. The modern standard is based on weight, rather than diameter, which gets you a lot closer, although it’s not ideal either (read the thread about multi-weight rods.)
Thanks for the correction, redietz. I didn’t know it was based on diameter. Now, if we could get the line makers to just post the weight of the first 30 ft instead of “slightlier heavier to load faster rods better” etc we could
make better judgements as to what we are buying.
For detailed information, check out the Shakespeare page in the Fiberglass Fly Rodders wiki site. http://fiberglassflyrodders.com/wiki/Shakespeare