Fiberglass creek rod

I think Batson Enterprises offers fiberglass blanks. The build up is easy, fun and rewarding

If you liked the old Fenwicks, find one on Ebay. For the money, that's as good of a deal as you're going to find.The old Philipson's are supposed to be the cats meow in fiberglass. A little more expensive but considerably cheaper than buying a new glass rod from one of the manufacturers listed above. I fish a vintage 4/5 wt, 6.5ft Eagle Claw Featherweight. From 25-30ft and in, it get's the job done nicely though it's far from being a Fenwick.

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The Eagle Claws Featherweights are hard to beat for the price.
http://www.troutlet.com/Eagle-Claw-Featherlight-Fly-Rods-P217.aspx

http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/directory ....also check out this website for great info on new and old fiberglass rods

Dave's link is good. They also have a wiki listing old and current glass rod makers: http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/topic/2692

FWIW, I have half a dozen modern glass rods, and they rock on small streams. Mine are all 5'6" to 7'0" and a mix of 3 and 4 weights. Awesome sticks.

kjsteelhead said:

I've been thinking about getting a short fiberglass rod for fishing small, brushy creeks. I started out with Cortland and Fenwick fiberglass rods back in the day before going graphite. Anyone know of a company that is still making decent fiberglass fly rods that are reasonably priced?

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Cortland diamondglass 3wts are nice. They measure 6'6'' if I remember correctly. They're discontinued (2005) so it's an ebay craigslist thing. If you're not married to fiberglass, the bastion 2 wt graphites have a glass feel with a decent finish. You get the 4 piece added bonus with the graphite that makes getting through the bushes to the water a bit easier. Both are my skinny water goto's and are inexpensive enough to make it tolerable if they get snapped in half trying to make it through a pile of blackberry bushes. Personally, I'd like to find a cheap boo rod for this purpose as well.

I found this on the fiberglassflyrodder site today and it names several vintage fiberglass rods for big trout on small creeks and thought it might be useful to you...

http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/topic/12267

I have several of the Eagle Claw Featherlights. For the low price, they are incredibly good rods. Some of the older models were outfitted with metal or graphite reel seats, but as of this year, they've been dressed up with uplocking reel seats, new style of handle and a good guide spacing. I'm very pleased with the way they cast...I mean really pleased. I've not done much with the 6'6", but the 7' is sweet. There is a new 8' rod out as well. For small stream fishing, the shortest rod would be great...it's a 3/4 as I recall.

Check out South Fork, David Redington's company. His glass rods look pretty nice, on a custom Lamiglas blank. They are supposedly really slow, and nice for short casts. southforkrodcompany.com

I've been looking for a 5 wt that'd be used specifically for dry flies, and I'd gone through the usual graphite suspects. None of them felt like what I wanted. After casting a few bamboo rods I realized that they're as diverse, or even more diverse, than graphite rods. Still hadn't found what I wanted. Didn't think about 'glass until I walked into a shop that sells Hardy. I cast it and bought one. Haven't fished it yet, but I'll try and remedy that this weekend. Casting it is really cool; what a great action. I have a feeling that this won't be my only 'glass rod for long.

Thanks for the great advice. Splurged on a new Eagle Claw 6 1/2 featherweight - $30 from the Troutlet. I'm gonna throw on the old Pflueger and hit some little mountain creeks this summer. Can't wait.

Awesome. I haven't seen or used one of new EC Featherlights yet. Let us know what you think after you've given it a test ride.

I think I'll try it on this little creek in Okanogan county that has this old car with a rumble seat...

Good luck finding it. It's a BIG County, don't get Lost. : )

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I got a Cabelas 6.5 ft 2 wt graphite with reel, and line for $190. A surprising nice casting rod with rod guarantee and just right for those Methow Valley streams, some of which have old cars on them! Rick

Two new developments for 2010 and 2011 for inexpensive but supposedly good-casting glass rods:

Eagle Claw has redesigned their series, and they're THIRTY bucks: http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com/2010/06/eagle-claw-featherlight-series.html

Cabela's, out of left field, has a newly-designed series at around $100 that looks promising: http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-look-cabelas-cgr-series.html

LOTS of modern glass on the market today, and more getting introduced every year.

And to add to Lugan's post...Cortland is bringing back the Diamondglass series with a few twists!!!!