Boron Rods

[WPCfishing]

Does anybody out there remember the hype. I bought into it. I can't count how many hooks sets I missed because of those dam rods. LMAO

[F14A-B]

Yes Sir, no hype.. Owned a few in the 80's

Fenwick was the best rod on the market, quantum didnt have nearly the Boron that fenwick had, but it was still a fine rod series.. I liked them

[Catt]

Yes Sir, no hype.. Owned a few in the 80's

Fenwick was the best rod on the market, quantum didnt have nearly the Boron that fenwick had, but it was still a fine rod series.. I liked them

I owned two Fenwick Boron rods, my goto worm rods!

[papajoe222]

I'm in the 'love them' school here.  My first boron rod was a 5'6" pistol grip and it was my go to worm rod for many years.  I currently have three Browning Boron Matrix rods and my 7'6" with a split handle is always on my deck. 

[WPCfishing]

I bought a couple medium light rods. I remember they were expensive. Can't remember the brand but it certainly wasn't a no name.

The rods had no back bone. I used them for floating jerk baits around docks.

I haven't seen boron offered for years. I remember they didn't last long in the market.

I'm glad you guys had better luck.. lol

[oldschoolbasser]

I have 10 Phenix Boron rods,and I still fish with them.Not to disparage you Fenwick lovers,but the Phenix line of boron rods were a hell of a lot better,and had way more actions,and powers. Phenix was also one of the 1st rod companies to have technique specific rods, and they also had their Pro line of rods ( Iovino Doodlin Rod, Bobby Garland Gitzit,Mike Folksted,Rich Tauber, and a few other names. These rods were lighter,and stronger than any of the graphite rods that were on the market at that time. As for back bone,I'll put mine up against any rod on the market today, plus the diameter of the blanks are smaller than most blanks out today. Unfortunately, the cost of boron became too high,and advances in graphite rod building caused it's demise. At the height of Phenix's popularity, Japan became one of the largest markets for their rods. They were building 100's of rods a month for the Japanese market until their economy collapsed. When the original blank maker went out of business,Gary Loomis started building their blanks,and incorporated IM6 graphite into the design. I still have a few of those too,and are great rods also.Phenix was also one of the 1st companies to offer "Custom" rods to their customers, with handle, length, and wrapping options to a customers design. There were a few companies offering boron rods,but they had very little boron content(think Shakespeare Ugly Stik graphite rods that only had a single strand of graphite in them) If you had a boron rod with no back bone,yyou really didn't have a true boron rod.

[John G]

Ok, what was good about Boron rods? I ask that from a want to know perspective. I remember when my dad took me uptown to Big L Sports to get my first baitcaster, they had Boron rods but I ended up getting a Fenwick Eagle Graphite 5'6" piston grip.

[WPCfishing]

Hey there oldschool, glad you found good fortune in the Boron Rods, I wasn't a fan. Maybe I bought the wrong pair. Thank you for the history although I don't beleive it was the economy sunk them.

Good decision John. Way back all my rods were pistol grip. They were the cats meow. Don't own any now. In fact the last one I had was a USA made Eagle Claw IM7 corker I bought about 8 years ago or so. This past winter I removed the grip and extended the blank. I put a 9" straight grip on it. Bought the cork from Janscraft. If it wasn't such a nice rod I wouldn't have spent the money to do it.

[oldschoolbasser]

John G,boron is lighter,stronger, and more sensitive than graphite

[Hooligan]

John G,boron is lighter,stronger, and more sensitive than graphite

That's a pretty broad statement, and very, very subjective.

Boron is a great material, but not without its own flaws. It's inherently more brittle than graphite, because of the short chain polymers. As a result of this, more material is used in blank construction, albeit it makes the blank more dense, not necessarily heavier or larger diameter.

Another aspect of boron filaments, which is what you're getting in a boron composition rod- I know of not a single pure boron rod out there... Is that the process similar to an aramid veil. The way the blank is constructed adds rigidity and strength, not so much sensitivity. You're still relying on the base carbon for that.

In regards to weight alone, boron is far heavier than carbon. In the specific case of boron matrix for rod building, it's heavier still because of the tungsten filament used for deposition.

Undoubtedly, the most effective use for boron matrix in a rod is to add lifting strength in the butt section. In all reality, that's all the intent ever was. Add strength to the blank low which allows you to move more material out of the blank elsewhere.