Sparse Grey Matter

Sure do. Good fiberglass rods don't have quite the romanticism of bamboo, but they do have that same smooth, sweet feel and can make almost all the casts required in normal fishing. I learned with Fenwicks, graduated to Winstons and Claudios, and more recently have begun buying glass rods again. The...

Nylon does absorb water. The materials I've used with success and little frizzing are zelon, Widow's Web and, best of all, but now hard to find, Tiemco's Aero Dri, a poly yarn with hollow fibers, so low specific gravity.

Just so the history doesn't get lost, J. Kennedy Fisher made blanks for most of the best fiberglass rod companies, including Hardy, Scientific Anglers, Winston, Ferdinand Claudio, Cortland, and Fisher itself. All of those rods, except perhaps Cortland, were designed by the San Francisco crowd of rod...

Not all boron rods were extra fast. It's the taper, not the material that determines the action. The boron Fenwicks were not all that fast. I still have several, and they are excellent casters. I talked to Jim Green, who designed the Fenwicks of all materials, including boron. He said the reason Fen...

I've used shooting heads for over 40 years. I don't think using a shooting head has anything to do with stressing a rod. In fact it's easier on a rod than trying to carry a long line in the air because all you have with a shooting head is 30' of line of the appropriate size. The long casts are a res...

I suggest you try polyleaders that are designed to be looped onto the end of a tapered line. They come in a variety of densities/sink rates and are not as heavy as sinking tips on sink tip lines, so cast with less of a flip flop. You can use them with any DT or WF line and just carry some to be used...

I've been fortunate to use a rod made by Tim and wholeheartedly second everything Eric has said. Tim has rethought just about everything and has created some fantastic rods. His innovations and some borrowed from other innovators has resulted in beautiful state of the art rods. Hollow building into ...