# Anyone fish with an older fiberglass rod?



## Janus (Jul 26, 2006)

Been thinking about trying fiberglass. I'm trying to figure out a decent one. There seems to be alot of "hit or miss" from the old fiberglass era. Thought I'd ask to see what you have had good experiences with. Leaning towards a wonderod 7'9" 5wt right now.
Janus


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## LFN (Apr 28, 2004)

I have a 7'9" Shakespear Spiral wound wonderrod from 1959. This was the presidential series I think. I bought it new for $60.00. Nice rod & I still use it. 
It really threw an array of different things.
Lou


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## jkurtz7 (Jan 17, 2008)

I'm into glass, and I now prefer it over graphite. You are correct that some of the vintage rods can be hit or miss. Todays modern glass rods from makers like Mike Mcfarland, and Mark Steffen are top notch. I own one Wonderod but, I've never cast any other Wonderods. It casts nice. Wonderods were top of the line back in the day. Fenwick Ferrulites are very nice rods, they have a good action and cast well. Lamiglas currently makes the Spring Creek series, there is a 7'6" 4wt that casts well with a 5wt line. Lamiglas also makes the honey colored E-glass blanks if you feel so inclined to build your own rod, or perhaps have someone else build one for you. I built one of the honey colored 7' 3wt's and it really is a sweet rod.

Jeremy


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I have a 7'-6" 4wt fiberglas rod that I had built back in the early 70's. It is truly a joy to fish with for trout and panfish though I have also caught some fairly large bass and steelhead with it. The timing on the cast is much slower but it can lay out a very delicate presentation.


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## MikeC (Jun 26, 2005)

I use St. Croix fiberglass to throw musky lures, 7' medium heavy with moderate fast action and a 6'6" medium with moderate action for the lighter stuff.


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## ledslinger (Aug 24, 2006)

jkurtz7 said:


> Lamiglas also makes the honey colored E-glass blanks if you feel so inclined to build your own rod,
> 
> Jeremy


i used to buy the s-glass rods 3 and 4 at a time--i think the numbers back then were 96-6 fast and that was a great 5 wt rod and a 96-6 slow and that was no more than a 4wt---we would fatigue these in about a half season using them for trout and gills---- at the time the blank was around 15 bucks

if you use them all the time ---they get pretty slow


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## fishing pole (May 2, 2004)

Any advantage to fiberglass?


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## Buckeye Mike (Jan 4, 2007)

No i dont use a fiberglass rod any more, but learned how to fly fish with a Shakespear rod, that had the metal ferrurale on it, also had a Shakespear automatic fly reel.
Caught many a crappie on that rod, before my brother took it back.
Like to break my heart.

Man you talk about bringing back memories.

But if i had to pick between a fiberglass or a graphite rod today, i would pick a graphite rod. Graphite is a lot lighter and they dont seem to wear out like fiberglass will.


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## cornmuse (Apr 14, 2004)

I am seriously into glass rods. Some of them can be simply magical - some of my favorite flyrods are glass. It's not for every application - long, light lines rods like a 9' 4wt or 8' 3wt are best in graphite. Shorter (6 to 8 foot) mid-weight (4 to 7 weight) rods are excellent in glass. There's an entire forum dedicated to glass rod collecting and fishing - the Fiberglass Flyrodders Forum. You'll find a link on the links pages at Fly Fish Ohio.

There are some fabulous new glass rod makers - TL Johnson, McFarland, Stephen Bros., Lamiglass. Even TFO is experimenting in modern glass. There's a lot of good reasons and great applications to justify looking into them. Diamondglass is also excellent, but likely discontinued.

In vintage glass there's a ton to choose from. You can do a lot worse than selecting a Fenwick as a good starting point. They were uniformly excellent in the 70's and 80's and there are a lot of them out there.

Joe C.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

I have 4 now 2 diamondglass which are newer rods and got 2 7wt from my dad last christmas while visiting. One of 7 wt is a diawa and looks like it new and never been used. The other one is a Roddy Pro 7wt. Both I know nothing on but will get some line for a spare reel I have and give it a try out.


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## gulfvet (Apr 14, 2004)

This is my only flyrod which I inherited from my grandfather. I've taken some nice fish on it (mostly smallies) over the years. I'm looking into buying a spey rod soon but until my blog starts making more money, I guess I'll be sticking with this one.


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