Glass Rods

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    Posted: 26 May 2019 at 10:51am
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The modern glass fly rods have come a long way in recent years and are available from Epic and CTS in NZ. They have a nostalgic feeling with their slower but not sloppy action. For the angler who wants to try something different, you could consider flats fishing for kings with a glass rod. The lack of a fighting butt is an option that if accepted, adds to the challenge. Fighting a king  without resting the rod on your gut certainly is different. The TAURANGA flats king was a ray rider busting piper. Instead of casting the bait fish fly at the piper, I cast at the short tail and the fly was smashed. The king, which was released went 6.0kg. The rod is a Kotaro/CTS Quartz #8  rod, given to me by the builder Andrew Currie. The reel is a Sage 3400D and the fly line, a Vision prototype intermediate with a heavier tip section. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 May 2019 at 1:24pm
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That's a beautiful king and a great capture on glass! Tauranga really is kingfish heaven!
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Nice capture. Must admit I've never noticed about sticking the fighting butt into my stomach during the battle. I like one cause they keep reel off the ground when putting the rod down. And look cool ...😎
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 May 2019 at 1:58pm
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As the fly fisher ages, the need for a longer fighting butt is more important because with each year, the butt seems to go further in. 
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Originally posted by Mudfish marquand Mudfish marquand wrote:

As the fly fisher ages, the need for a longer fighting butt is more important because with each year, the butt seems to go further in. 
 
LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote muchalls Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 May 2019 at 6:02pm
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I browsed the Epic site and once they had my email I was bombarded with Mrs Doyle style encouragement to buy a rod. Certainly building one is way cheaper and you could put a nice little ‘butt’ on it

Who’s Mrs Doyle? Ah go on now, you must have heard of her?
https://youtu.be/Gmpa9FLVAlE
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Hi Muchalls. I'm not sure of the glass blank used in the Epic fly rods, but I reckon that it's probably a CTS Quartz. Perhaps a reader can enlighten me on this. The people I have met with Epic fly rods swear by them and with Carl McNeil running the Swift fly fishing company, I can understand why. There are excellent YouTube instructions on building the Epic rods. The box all the rod parts come in is used as the guide binding rig. Cheers 
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I was very tempted! They look.....Epic!
Lovely high quality cork grip, must.......resist......
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Great fun this evening fishing for kahawai at Tauranga. While the one in the photo is not a big one, it gave a good account of itself on my new Echo River Glass 369-3. Having a break from graphite and I'm really enjoying the glass. These are nothing like the rods that I used in the '60s and early '70s. The new glass rods are faster than those of the old days, more responsive and cast well. This #3 weighs 2.6 ounces. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote m.d.hoffman@xtra.co.nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jun 2019 at 10:49pm
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Wow - so how many hours from purchase to first capture Mudfish?!Wink
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Sorry Wolfie, posted the reply on the ultra light thread. An old brain obviously not engaged. Cheers
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Cool thread Mudfish! I'm a fan of glass rods too. 

Not as light or fast in the hand but so sweet to cast and the real fun begins when you hook a decent fish! Love having the blank bend almost to the handle...

The Epic 888 whipped this flats kingi no worries.
It aint no use if it aint chartreuse!
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That's a nice king Troutzilla, and a nice rod. It's a great feeling to touch the brakes and go back to slower action rods. Just let the rod do the work. Thanks for posting the pic. Any more swoffers out there with photos of glass caught fish? Bring it on!
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I still have a 1990s Shakespeare ugly stick 8/9 that was my budget big fish rod and did some good brown trout at Aniwhenua and my first kingfish on a Saltfly Sunday outing ( and lost at side of the boat). Perhaps I should set it up with my SA system 2 reel for a trip down memory lane ...Beer
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Originally posted by Mudfish marquand Mudfish marquand wrote:

Hi Muchalls. I'm not sure of the glass blank used in the Epic fly rods, but I reckon that it's probably a CTS Quartz. Perhaps a reader can enlighten me on this.  
 
Correct, Epic use the CTS blanks.
 
These new Glass rod are nothing like those of old. Faster, lighter and stronger. I can see them being a game changer especially in the 10 plus lineweightsWink
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 Why not Wolfie. Those old Ugly Sticks are legend! Some of the early hollow glass fly rods are wobble sticks. I still have my Kilwell Premier #10 that I bought in the mid 60s, tiny eyes and all. Got me my first small burley induced king on fly in the late 60s. Now, it's a treasured wall hanger.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jun 2019 at 10:39pm
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Enjoyable thread guys.

I taught myself to fly cast using a Kilwell Robin Hood (6/7 wt) and a Kilwell Hawk (8/9 wt) as a teenager in the mid '80s - at the local intermediate school with a Greg Kelly book with black and white photos!
My parents bought me the rods in a closing down sale somewhere - I think it was a kind of hardware/outdoors crossover store back in the day.
I still have those two rods, painted in the classic Kilwell metallic blue, tucked away in the basement. They caught me quite a few nice trout on the Waitahanui, Tongariro etc until I could afford my first graphite Kilwell.

I kept all my old rods, including a Wynrod 6 wt, and my all time favourite, my Legacy GIII 9'6" 8wt (said to be a NZ assembled brown Sage blank) which I regrettably snapped the tip on with a weighted bomb on the Tongariro. I posted on the forum a few years ago desperate to find a tip section, but nobody seemed to still have one.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jun 2019 at 11:04pm
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 Good evening Tamure Kid. I remember the Kilwell Hawk and Robin Hood, around the early '70s. If you get a chance to cast one of the new glass rods, CTS, Epic or the Chinese glass rods, you won't believe how far they have come. Not as fast as the new graphite, but as fast and responsive as the older graphite. They really are nice to use, it's great just to take a few steps back and enjoy casting a slower rod and letting it do the work. The Chinese fibreglass rods are bloody nice to use and can be bought brand new for a song. I reckon more and more fly fishers will embrace what will be a glass revolution. Wynrod did make graphite fly rods on Sage blanks but it is my understanding that they didn't meet the standards set by Sage and couldn't carry the Sage logo. I have one such rod, practically unused, near mint. If I remember right, it's a 993. Treasure your blue Kilwells, they are part of our fishing history.,

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jun 2019 at 6:13am
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Lovely king on a glass 8wt TZ! That could have had you in all sorts of bother

I haven't tried a modern glass rod and remain to be convinced. Everything hard and fast around here Great thread though. Very interesting. I'm almost tempted
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Originally posted by Mudfish marquand Mudfish marquand wrote:

Wynrod did make graphite fly rods on Sage blanks but it is my understanding that they didn't meet the standards set by Sage and couldn't carry the Sage logo. I have one such rod, practically unused, near mint. If I remember right, it's a 993. Treasure your blue Kilwells, they are part of our fishing history.,


Very interesting. My recollection about the Legacy rods (made by Kelsco - i think Wynrod was a separate entity?) was that they were marketed by shop staff (at the old Tisdalls in Queen St, anyway) as Sage 'seconds'. Not defective in terms of performance, but some cosmetic issue with the blank. 

But for obvious reasons, you're right, Sage didn't allow them to be associated with Sage at all. I found mine to be a nicely crisp rod with a perfect length fighting butt.
A huge difference from the first generation Kilwell graphite I had been using.

It's amazing to think what we used when I started, including chest high Skellerup gumboots that i walked for miles in along the Taupo tributaries!! Red Hut to the old Cliff Pool in those was no mean feat.
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