What material is your rod made of?

[far bank stalker]

cool. worth a cheeky punt! i use mine regularly. i love to fiddle with/modify the things i own and use (racing bicycles, fishing kit, tattoo machines) i actually chose to have a cane rod because it meant i could strip and rewhip it every now and then!

[Steve Walker]

slight sound of jaw hitting computer desk

 

o.k. i knew when i was writing that post that fly rod makers have a 'next level' penchant for detail, and i suppose that justifies the price (sometimes)

 

one day i will own a rod like that, who knows, maybe even a fly fishing one

 

Have you seen the website that picture comes from?

 

http://www.barder-rod.co.uk/

 

The prices are... scary!

[chesters1]

scary i wouldnt buy yates himself for half that

a signed proof of ownership for that price i would want it tattoo'd on the makers foreskin and included!

Edited January 13, 2011 by chesters1

[far bank stalker]

Have you seen the website that picture comes from?

 

http://www.barder-rod.co.uk/

 

The prices are... scary!

i hadn't, but well aware of Bardrer rods (maybe the most expensive available?). to be honest i think it's a bit of kidology with that brand, you'd be buying into a certain idea of what fly fishing should be. there are plenty of american rod makers capable of producing rods every bit as functional and pretty as that one, they really are fanatical but you don't go to a vast country estate in hertfordshire to discuss your rod with a Lord with those.

[Vagabond]

I have owned (and used) rods made from Greenheart, Lancewood. Hickory, Willow, Birch, Hazel, and best of all Yggdrasil (Rowan or Mountain Ash) I still have (and use) a fair number of such rods.

 

Passing on from that, I have used whole East India Bamboo, Tonkin, Spanish Reed and of course Split Bamboo.

 

More recently (like in the last twenty years) Solid Glass, Hollow Glass, and various types of Carbon Fibre have become added to my armoury.

 

I partly follow Budgie's system of choosing "the best rod for the job" but quite often choose the rod on a whim (eg, "its a long time since I used that Greenheart fly rod, lets give it an outing tomorrow")

 

Although, obviously, it is good to choose a rod designed for the job, I have very often found myself out in the wilderness somewhere, an unforseen opportunity has cropped up, and the only rod I have with me is definitely not designed to cope. Improvisation is then the name of the game.

 

Like when I was fly-fishing (#4) for sunfish and large-mouth bass kept having a wipe at the fish I was playing.

 

Improvisation, a Pennell-rigged sunfish, using the largest flies in my flybox, a chunk of wood clove-hitched to the line as float, yards of flyline pulled off and coiled beyond the tip ring, the rig thrown out by hand, the line lightly tightened and flyrod propped up on an idleback.

 

Final result - two LM bass, about 3 lb apiece.

 

As the late Fred J Taylor once said, during a campfire discussion about the "best" rod, "It's not the rod that counts, it's the man behind it"

[watatoad]

Have you seen the website that picture comes from?

 

http://www.barder-rod.co.uk/

 

The prices are... scary!

 

Yet you can even pay more for some than is shown on their website...they are just the starting prices...Bet there are some shaken Carp Chasers...hehehe

 

I wonder if he would do a camoed one?

[far bank stalker]

i am prone to exaggerating everything but the size of fish i catch! honestly! erm, this was to teme man and my comments about manufacturing in china!

Edited January 13, 2011 by far bank stalker

[chesters1]

cool. worth a cheeky punt! i use mine regularly. i love to fiddle with/modify the things i own and use (racing bicycles, fishing kit, tattoo machines) i actually chose to have a cane rod because it meant i could strip and rewhip it every now and then!

you can with later materials as well ,well up to a point is it worth stripping a modern rod ?you could just buy another clone from the same conveyor belt

Edited January 13, 2011 by chesters1

[Anderoo]

I've seen someone fishing with a pair of absolutely gorgeous Barder rods for tench, and they were really lovely things. I can see the attraction, but my tackle gets treated badly at best, so I don't think I'm the right person for them!

[Steve Walker]

True, and there are British rodbuilders who will make you a lovely rod for a quarter of what Barder charge. They have been described as taking 60 hours work per rod - not sure which rods that's for, but depending it puts Barder's hourly rate between twenty and thirty pounds an hour, ignoring materials. Plenty of garages charge more than that for their labour and facilities, which I guess puts it into context a bit. Seems a fair rate for something made in Britain by craftsmen, the question is whether you really want a rod with 60 hours labour in it?