This summer Marty and I had the opportunity to try a fiberglass rod that our friend Ken Anderson made. WOW!!! What a fun rod!!
Here's Kens story on fiberglass.
Fisher (San Francisco era Winston) 7'6" 5wt.What inspired you to make fiberglass rods?
When I was a kid, I had one Fenwick fiberglass rod with a Pflueger medalist on it and I just loved that rod. I still have it. Thank's to the eBay era I was able to buy some more Fenwicks and immediately fell in love with how sweet they are to cast, and how much more sensation there is while playing a fish compared to graphite. On the Deschutes, I catch most of my fish with a size 18 fly and was having a lot of trouble keeping them on that tiny hook with a fast graphite rod so I started using the slow, tippet protecting, fiberglass to solve that problem... which it did.
Diamondglass 6'5wtWhat do you like most about the rods?
The thing I like most about fiberglass is the flexibility of the blank all the way down into the cork which ads so much fun to the sensation of playing a fish.
Not to mention, most of them are between $50 and $100 and fiberglass is much stronger and more durable than graphite.... so they're an unbeatable deal. It takes two hands to count all my $600+ graphite rods that have broken over the years, but not even one finger to count broken fiberglass.
Any plan to make a fiberglass double handed?
I'd love to make a fiberglass spey rod but finding those blanks ain't that easy. There's a New Zealand company that makes a 12' 6wt. and Fenwick made an 11' 6wt. that is extremely hard to find and has devoted cult following. Some guys add various extensions to a 9' single hand blank but that's a lot of work and expense before you know if it will be any good or not. I hope to find a good spey blank though and build one soon.
So, the fun of the Fenwicks lead me to the next level.... I wanted fiberglass rods that looked nice so I had to make them.
Lamiglas 6'6" 3wt
