Where Are The Two Piece Fiberglass Rods?

[asgsevbserbgsre]

I've been watching how rods go into cars and SUV's locally in the Boston area. Most seem to leave the rod assembled. Strange to me as my habit has always been to pull the rod apart at the ferrule, fold at the line, tie up the two halves with a velcro strap (or when I was a kid with string) and store the rod and reel in the trunk in a carry bag.

Aside from one piece graphite rods, I rarely seen anyone doing this so my guess is that fiberglass rods are really not popular in New England now. All of my rods are Conolon so it's never an issue of a single length. All are two piece ferruled rods.

Seems the fiberglass rod is really on the downswing around here. I can't imagine fitting a 6.5-7 foot rod into a car trunk. I wouldn't trust the through the rear seat panel. Not having an SUV or a pickup any longer, it's just the Camry for me at the moment.

So what gives? Have people forgotten how to take a rod apart, fold it and store it?

maybe just a rhetorical question.

Gary

[Bluebasser86]

Fiberglass is heavy and less sensitive, not a good combo in a buisness where everyone is trying to make their products lighter and more sensitive than the other guys. Most of the higher end componies make very few two piece rods at all. Eagle Claw and Shakespeare each make 2 piece fiberglass rods, only two I can think of off the top of my head. I own a couple 2 piece fiberglass rods for catfishing and for hybrids but I never take them apart, no reason to with a full sized truck. Even my 12' surf rods stay together and just stick out the back of the truck a long ways.

[Tony Monticelli]

there more glass out there than that, not easy to find but they are there, are they as good as the old school stuff, i don't think so..

i snatched up 2 old ugly sticks because there better than the new ones.. the new ones are junk, the old ugly sticks i like those are ugly sticks, there a little heavier but the extra weight is worth it..

flee markets and yard sales.. gotta find the old stuff, people were trading in old rods at bass pro a couple weeks ago for the what ever sale deal, there were so many nice old glass in there that i was close to grabbing the barrel and running out with it.

[asgsevbserbgsre]

d**n I have to get on the Bass Pro sales lists again. I've been playing around with carbon rods, new glass and my old glass rods and I really think it comes down to lack of experience with the material, the wrong tackle, the wrong reels and the wrong expectations. And the wrong rods.

Any glass rod manufactured after the mid 1970's, and I'm really only talking Garcia Conolon here, was on it's way out in quality. By the 80s they were junk made overseas on assembly lines.

When I can I'll add some paper on the making of the early rods to show what it was all about. These rods where basically hand made with some mass production thrown in for good measure. The top of the line series had a lot of hand attention.

Too stiff? Bupkis. I tried out a modern carbon rod next to my Conolon Gold 2133 7", Varmac Guides c1970, Specie cord butt. Fast taper, light action. There is no comparison. They are different beasts and can't be compared and that;s that. The 2133 detects all the activity in the top third of the rod, transmitting sensation equally through to you via the line held in your forefinger in front of the reel. In my case, a 408, 300 or a 410 Mitchell.

I found the graphite rod to be whippy and too responsive. Instead of acting as an extension of my arm during casts, I was forced to use more wrist movement to direct a cast and lost distance and precision. I also lost salmon roe at times.

Thanks but I'll stick with my Conolon rods c1960-1975. The Gold series put the Brown and Green to sleep and I think that is part of the problem. People try out an old rod and think all are the same when they're night and day. What kind of guide is used? What taper and what action? What brand? What model? Was it made for plugging, trolling. trout, bass, salmon, steelhead, panfish or?

I'm betting that today's pundits think the rod makers of the '60's and 70's were just floundering aroung, or bassing up and not knowing what was what until the 'scientists' came along and invented the graphite rod.

Here's a tip: It takes more manufacturing steps to make a mass produced high end glass rod correctly than it does a graphite rod. The glass rod must be rolled on a mandrel. The graphite rod is solid core and formed in a pattern. CNC machinery does the final shaping. On the glass rod, shaping can be done by CNC but hand work is needed to check it hence the manufacturers pushing graphite rods as Better cause they make them more money.

Plus, if everyone stuck with glass, there wouldn't be a new market for you to buy new rods and reels each year, would there be? Me and people I know, we just dig into our box of reels and rods and spend the winter fixing up and rehabing old rods and reels for the next season. The manufacturers make not a cent on us other than tackle.