What would you buy?

[luzerne]

Good luck finding a Cummings rod, they are very scarce. Ed Van Put owns and fishes a beauty.
I checked the inventory and found two glass rods left here, a Fenwick and a Wonderod. These things happen when you have twin boys who are fishermen.
I agree with Ted, graphite cannot be beat for big water fishing. I use cane on the waters around Roscoe but pull out the Sages on the Delaware and out west.

[corlay]

Question, If you were going to buy a classic fiberglass rod of 7.5 ft. 4 wt. what would you buy?

You are going to be hard-pressed to find a classic fiberglass rod in a 4wt.
Typically, in pre-'90's fiberglass, the lightest design weight was #5.
(that's not to say that some folks don;'t like some #5-rated rods with a #4...)

Your old System 5 rod, was a very fine one;
build by SA on a blank manufactured by J. Kennedy Fisher company.
These late-era fiberglass blanks with spigot ferrules are of some of the finest fiberglass flyrods ever made, IMO.
There was a System 4 model made back then, but they are rarely seen on the open for sale market,
and command a pretty good price when they do surface. I believe that they are ~7-'3" in length.
(all the SA 'System' rods were odd lengths...)

In modern rods, there are quite a few choices for a 7'6" #4.

Probably the most ubiquitous, would be a custom rod build on a Lamiglas "honey" blank.
These are a big favorite with the Fiberglass enthusiasts. 1, 2, 3, or 6 pc. formats. (each with slightly different casting feel)
Lamiglas also recently discontinued it's 'Spring Creek' line, which featured a 7'6" #4.
They sold these as assembled rods or blanks.

Also, the very recently discontinued Diamondback 'Diamondglass' line featured a 7'6" #3 that some like better with a #4.
You may still be able to find one of these about, but they are really starting to become scarce.

Modern, currently active small-shop makers like Mark Steffen and Mike McFarland both offer 7'6" #4's that are very highly regarded.
If you don't mind spending the cash, these would probably be your best bets.
(they are both easily found on the web)

Finally, here is a link to the Fiberglass Flyrodders online forum Wiki:
http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/to ... Links.html
You can find info on just about any fiberglass flyrod ever produced there.

PS I'm currently am selling a well-used Fenwick FF756 7'6" 2/1 #6 for *cheap* ($45 + S&H)if that at all interests you?
Would be a low-risk way for you to try a fiberglass rod, just to see how you like it.

[dennis]

narcodog, that Fenwick 7-8 wt. would make a nice night stick for huge browns. No

Luzerne, there not only scarse but very expensive to. The "white demon" wonderod was one hell of a rod and yes the graphites are great where needed. I own several Orvis models. My favorite is the PM-10 9 ft. 5 wt. and the 9 I/2 Med Flex 6 wt. for throwing streamers.

corlay, not really lookin for one myself ( just a question to get the fiberglass thread started ) but thanks all the same for the information. I still fish the system 5 every now and then. The McFarland rods are made in Pa. right? I read somewhere on the fiberglass board about the "Spruce Creek" model was real nice. Even though glass rods are just as popular today as cane I would rather spend the money on a used cane rod. thanks dennis

[luzerne]

I agree the glass rods from scarce or well known makers seem to be settling on the $12 to 14 hundred $$$ range. Thats very close to cane prices as far as I'm concerned.
The recent ones I have seen are:
A Russ Peak for 1250.00
Carpenter for 900.00
Tom Morgan is now offering a glass rod for 1245.00
You will soon see a few more Carpenter glass rods on the market.
They never were nor will they be my favorites

[drlogik]

I have been off-and-on looking for a really nice Hexagraph. A Trout model in a 9' 5 weight. I have cast a few Hexagraphs and they are really nice casting rods....for a NON-bamboo rod! They are a tad heavier than a typical graphite rod; at least the ones I tried seemed to be and they had a nice medium flex to. They come up now and then on *bay but most of those are the big salmon and spey models.

Pretty rods to...for a NON-bamboo rod....of course.

[ewpeper]

Here's a link to some very nicely made glass rods. I've only cast one of their glass rods, but I wouldn't have minded owning and fishing it. I can vouch for their graphite rods being among the best fishing rods I've ever handled

http://www.steffenbrothersflyrods.com/P ... rglass.htm

The prices look pretty attractive too.

Eric

[eflytyer]

Hardy has new glass rods in 4 sizes, very reasonable. Classic series. $299 to $399. With Hardy warranty. 5" 2wt, 6' 3 wt, 7' 3 wt, 7'6" 4 wt, and 8' 5 wt. I have them on my site, www.eflytyer.com. Click on tackle, then look for Hardy rods.

[willowhead]

Good to see you here Mike.....Narcodog, you mispelled Tenkara. When Joan Stolliar died, Arthur gave us 13 of her rods. We have since given away all but 4 of them.....three of those are hung-up on the wall in our little fly shop downstairs in the basement of the house here, and one we still actually fish with on occassion. It's a homemade 7 ft. graphite 4 wt. with spigot ferrules. Very nice little rod. Most all of the others we gave away were graphite.....two were glass. One was a Fenwick.....kinna wish i had kept it.....really nice rod, but a friend fell in love with it. And the other was a white Wonder-Rod which i gave to another friend, Les Young.....who has always been very helpfull as an angling instructor. Les is a wealth of knowledge. He fished on our team in Colorado in '08. It was so funny.....Les is a dry fly specialist/expert. But when it came time to do some serious nymphing.....lmao.....he was the student. He did catch fish though.
Btw.....in '08 we got to Colorado (commin' from Montana), bout 2 weeks before the competition and fished all the rivers in advance of the Tournament. i was the official team tyer.....so when the contest started.....i'd get up at 6 a.m. with everyone else.....go have breakfast at 7 a.m. with everyone else.....then when they all loaded up on the buses at 8 a.m. to head for the water.....i'd go back to bed............ Sleep til bout 11 a.m. and then go find me a nice quite spot on the river all by myself. i am NOT into competitive fly fishing...........but i gotta support my ole' lady.....she likes that stuff. Plus i hadda get my rest for those late night tyin' sessions we had every night.
The rivers we fished during that time were the Arkansas, the Colorado, the Blue, 10 Mile and one more i can't think of the name of it. We've given John Kimura the Captainship for Team IWFF for this year in Colorado. And we're working on finding a new Captain for Team Japan as well. Misa wants to concentrate more on her artwork now.
Last year we also fished the Gunnison before going to Conclave in Loveland, CO. Tom Whiting invited us to the Pro Team Open House/Lunch/Shopping event and we took the tour. Go see that place if you ever get a chance.....it's an amazing operation.
Another really nice river is the Big Thompson. We fished there during Conclave.....it has the second highest bio-mass of any river in Colorado after the Frying Pan. And all the fish are wild. It hasn't been stocked in over 20 years.....and it's loaded with fish. Runs down out of the Rocky Mountain National Park all the way to Loveland.....lots of access, short cast, incredable scenery.