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4K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  Brookie_Hunter 
#1 ·
this rod?


I'm refinishing it sweet little stick imo
 
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#2 ·
I have an FL112-9 blank in new condition - same color and presumably vintage. I found mine a few months ago in the back of a closet. I probably bought it around 30 years ago and simply forgot about it. Don't really know much more than I have been told it would make great salmon/steelhead rod. Curious to what you find out.
 
#4 ·
That would be a 7' rod for 5 wt line. Probably a nice small stream rod. I have a 7 1/2' for 6 wt in 4 piece that I have used backpacking a few times, along with a 6' for 4 or 5 wt, an 8 1/2' for 7 wt., and 8 1/2' for 8 wt. Fenwick made one of the best lines of fiberglass fly rods from the 60s through the 80s. Your yellow blank looks like one from the 70s. Does it have metal ferrules, in which case it would be older?

Sg
 
#7 ·
I think you are right that 84-5 = 84 inches and 5 wt. My FL112-9 is 112" - an odd number and someone who knows a lot about these old Fenwicks told me the last number was the line wt.

I'm curious as to whether the line weights of 30+ years ago are the same ones used today.
 
#8 ·
What Lugan said. I built a lot of rods in my youth on the Grizzly Fenwick blanks. Usually they didn't have ferrules (brown blanked Fenwick blanks had the ferrulite usually). Used to buy them at Schoffs in Kent. I still have one of these unbuilt in my garage. Rusty on ratings. But do know a lot of these came as a one piece and you cut blank to suit action you wanted. Ferrule placement did effect stiffness. We used 7 wt flyrods for our side drifting rods. Cut low in blank you would get a softer action. In fact I have a 7wt I built into a soft summerrun steelhead flyrod around 1980. O'rads even casted it. Fun rod even on trout.

Definitely an older blank.
 
#9 ·
Jerry/Lugan; I looked at the fiberglass fly rod page Lugan posted the link to above. All of those Fenwick rods begin with FF. ak_powder_monkey and my rod are models that begin with FL.

apm, don't mean to hijack your thread, but as I stated above, I have a similar blank.

Guys, I apologize if I didn't see a link that would list these rods, but everything I found had models starting with FF.

Thanks in advance for any clues as to the heritage of the rods/blanks.

Steve
 
#12 ·
AK Fenwick isn't that "Fenwick" anymore. They've been bought a few times and don't even make blanks for public sale anymore (I think). I grew up Fenwick. Was the creme dela creme of rods. If you were a real steelheader you had one. Think they were bought out first time in the 80s. I'm a Fenwick man not a historian. But still have some old schwag and patches they gave out back then. Even a few old catalogs. Have a feeling last time they were bought out they just dumped all those files rather then convert to a computer document.
 
#14 ·
I contacted Fenwick several months ago when I found the blank and got the same response. Jerry's right the Fenwick name lives on but the original company has been sold many times over.

I'm pretty sure I bought my blank at Schoff's in Kent too. If I remember, they used to have a barrel full of blanks. A couple of weeks ago I found a 7' Lamiglass fiberglass rod I made 30+ years ago. I'm sure I also got it at Schoffs. I think it was a fly rod blank that I made into an ultra-light spinning rod. (I can't read the model number anymore.) I've stripped it down and am rebuilding it.
 
#16 ·
Steve, I remember that barrel he had. Got quite a few of my lami and fenwick blanks out of it (still have I think 3-5 of my gear and flyrods that I built so long ago). Funny, I had to do some research awhile back mostly because I was curious what models the blanks were and couldn't remember.

I did love those old yellow (more mustard yellow) blanks. Great rods came from them. But did prefer the ferrulite over those damned metal ferrules.
 
#17 ·
My mustard yellow blank has the ferrulite ferrule. I found a second Lamiglass blank of the same Schoff's barrel vintage - UL 81-28 (not sure if the last digit is an 8 or S or maybe even a 9). I'm sure the UL is for ultra light. It is light as a feather for fiberglass and as soft/slow as a buggy whip. The rod is a lot of fun to catch small trout on.

I'm just getting back into rod building again and having fun rebuilding some of these old rods I put together 30 or more years ago. Next on my list are several Lamiglass graphite gear rods I built back in the late 70's for steelhead and salmon. Also an old bamboo fly rod my uncle gave me that must be at least 50 years old.
 
#19 ·
My mustard yellow blank has the ferrulite ferrule. I found a second Lamiglass blank of the same Schoff's barrel vintage - UL 81-28 (not sure if the last digit is an 8 or S or maybe even a 9). I'm sure the UL is for ultra light. It is light as a feather for fiberglass and as soft/slow as a buggy whip. The rod is a lot of fun to catch small trout on.

I'm just getting back into rod building again and having fun rebuilding some of these old rods I put together 30 or more years ago. Next on my list are several Lamiglass graphite gear rods I built back in the late 70's for steelhead and salmon. Also an old bamboo fly rod my uncle gave me that must be at least 50 years old.
I'd never seen a Grizzly blank with the ferrulite. The Lami yellow blanks I have. Hmmmmm. Wish I had seen those. I literally hated the metal ferrules, but loved changing the action on those rods moving the ferrule up or down. Wish I had seen them, but maybe those were the more expensive blanks (we mostly grabbed from the bargain bin). But do remember making a few yellow Lami's with the internal ferrules.

Yeah, it's a small world alright. Don't recall many other rod building shops back then (at least my Dad only went to Schoffs so I went where he went), so guess everyone went there in the Puget Sound area (I keep thinking Anglers Workshop didn't really take hold until the early 80's, and Schoffs was the place to go back then anyways).
 
#18 ·
Wow, small world! I to bought several "seconds" from the barrel at Schoff's. I bought six of them, wish I would've bought the whole barrel! I remember paying $2.50 each for the 7' one pc Lami blanks. I recently finished two of them as one piece fly rods with agatine strippers from Patrick's. One had a partial "Lamiglas, Kent Wa" sticker on the bottom of the butt that I added in front of the cork. I used to buy all of my rod building supplies there, also my cousin Ross used to work there in the 60's building rods and tying flies, I still have my first flyrod he built for me when I was 10, it's a 8' Phillipson that I paid $20!---Steve
 
#20 ·
Back when I bought a bunch of blanks from Fosters sporting goods or it may have been Foster Road sporting goods this was in Portland and they were going out of business. I was just learning to wrap my own and my boys and I wanted to fly fish the Deschutes. At that time I had only one fly rod so I had to make up three rods because my old bamboo was getting very worn. I still have the bamboo to rebuild and I still have the Lamiglas that I built then on a CFL977F blank and sill love to fish it. It's an 8ft 7wt. Of the other two I built one was generic and was eventually broken. The other was a Fenwick gold and I thinl the same one you are asking about although it may have been longer. It was destroyed some where along the way since then but was well used by then. I still have two Lamiglas blanks for freshwater spinning, that haven't been built and a half dozen generic spin blanks to do for kids rods. I have a few more things I haven't used too, guides corks thread . whaat I haven't had is time Now I have moved back to Portland and I have things still in storage including the Fenwick catalog from that era that list that blank. I don't know when I can get to them. I need to get my own place and move there to unpack. I'm sorry about that. I'll look as I can and post it if found. the Lamiglas mmmodels are #s CFW841M Fresh Water Medium Action 7ft. and a Steelhead blank SH1095M. The fFwnwick had a self ferrule and the Lamiglas had inserts and werre the old Dark semitransparent brown. And have an old Fenwick gold blank that was broken and is missing about 16'' from the tip It's an FL 966 Fenglas and has aGI Joes tag at $8.99 but I'm sure I got it free. It was not ferruled.

,
 
#24 ·
I don't own any Fenwicks (yet at least) but I happen to have a 1982 Fenwick (Woodstream) Rod Builders and Blank Catalog. While it doesn't have your exact blank listed, it has a Feralite FL-84-5F which is a 7ft, 2pc, 5wt blank that's brown, not gold like yours and 1 5/8oz. I'll photograph that portion of the catalog and attach later.
 
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