Anyone still use glass fly rods???

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  In the last year or so I bought several new fly rods...I tried to find the softest actions I could, but compared to a Fenwich Fenglass rod  they are like broom sticks..yesterday, I packed all of them away and got out my four old lFenglass rods, rigged them up and went out for a quick try...caught two nice rainbows, then this morn. while grouse hunting I stopped and caught 2 nice browns on the old 7 1/2 Fenwick...the enjoyment of catching fish on  a felixable rod was great...Anyone still use these old rods, or similar ones...Maybe I am the simply out of step with the modern world...   


 

[saddlebum]

I still have one glass rod but I don't use it. Might be fun playing a fish on one, but it's no fun,(for me anyway), casting with it in the wind. Or even a slight breeze. My casting style is better suited to fast action rods. My favorite rods are St. Croix, 7.5' 3wt Legend Ultra and a 9' 5wt Legend Ultra. These two suit my favorite kind of fishing. I have an old Cortland CL 9' 5wt that is as limber as I care to go. It's a nice rod for calm days. But as soon as the wind kicks up, the fun is over. Maybe I'm just not a good enough caster or maybe I'm spoiled. I like to fish running water and line mending is much easier with a fast rod. I will admit there is a place for a noodle rod, like beaver ponds, and they're fun to fish then.......But in the old days when I first started, like everyone else, I made due pretty good with a glass rod. Guess I am spoiled!!

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  saddle, those sound like the rods I put in the attic..7' 3wt in St. C. and  9' 6wt. by St. C. both the Avid series..they will stay up for a while...maybe some day I will give them a whirl again..

[saddlebum]

The Avid rods are not the same as the Legend Ultra rods which are much faster and of better quality I assume since they cost more.
But that's the reason they make alot of different kinds of rods to suit each indivduals preferences, skill level and style of casting.
I have never cast an Avid rod so I don't know if I would like it. I have never fished a really good glass rod either. So maybe I'm missing something. I am satisfied with the two rods I mentioned and I only have them because I got them at a big discount. Inventory reduction, end of season sale at Sportsman's Warehouse. Otherwise I would still be fishing the Cortland CL or their new graphite.

Being happy with what you have to fish with is what counts. It is an indivdual thing.....TIGHT LINES AND HAPPY FISHING !!!   

[flatlander]

It isn't just you. Cabelas is coming out with a new line of glass rods next year. I've built a couple of rods on e-glass spinning rod blanks that make a nice flyrod. Steffen bros, lamiglass, diamondglass, and scott are still selling glass rods and blanks (probably more that I missed), and Dorber has an ultra-weave and e-rod 2 that tries to mimic the grass and glass blanks from the past.
BTW, you can build up an e-glass spinning blank into a fly rod for $40 or so if you shop around. They make a nice 4/5/6 weight.

[bulldog1935]

http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/

I have a large Phillipson collection and fish many glass rods from 6' to 8'
most of the venerable rods are 6-wts, and I have just a few 4s and 5s.  
I fish these for endemic bass in the TX hill country.  

For my trout rods, I mostly fish cane 8' to 8-1/2', and a couple of good glass trout rods including Japanese and modern American.  

I have a hand-rolled 6/7 parabolic from Japan I fish inshore saltwater - reds and specs.  


A lot of glass rods are re-emerging from the big makers this year, after many years of great small shop rods - McFarland, Seffen Bros.  

here's my 8' 4-wt. 3-pc. made from a Lamiglas blank by Dwight Lyons

the reel is a Hardy Bougle Mk IV

If any of you guys get The KT Diaries on tv, watch next spring for an episode True Texas Bass - I take KT fishing for endemic Guadalupe bass and he's fishing my SA System 5 glass rod made by Joe Fisher (and fishing out of my canvas bag, and wearing my wet-wading boots...)

[DanOv]

I have my first fly rod, a glass 7.5' 6Wt Fenwick, which I still fish on occassion.   I took a jsummer job in Ft. Collns, CO between my sophomore and junior years in college and fed myself on trout that summer using that rod.

It caught a door once, and I had it repaired just for the senitmental value.  But it casts well and I take it out for panfish and bass on ponds from time to time.

[keith44]

I confess I don't trout fish.  I use my glass rod for mid-summer bluegill, and small mouth bass.  The soft action of the rod makes it perfect for a long fight with the bass, and deft enough to bring the bluegills out of hiding when they just won't hit anything else.

but yes both my rods are glass, and both get used for both types of pond and lake fishing I like.

[streak]

Still have my Shakespear glass flyrod, I think I have had it since 1964 or 65. It was the cat`s meow catching big bluegills on small popping bugs or small rubber spiders! Did most of that flyrod fishing on Black Bayou in N.W. Louisiana.
My oldest son up in Alaska makes custom flyrods for a hobby,and has made three for me ! I use these here in Colorado for those pesky trout! Still use the glass rod for bream, yellow perch.

[mspaci]

I still like my custom mae Vince Cummings 4 wt 7ft glass rod on small streams.  Mike