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Post 04 Dec 2017, 04:41 • #26 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/24/11
Posts: 1144
Location: Belgium
I started fly fishing in the mid 70's when in my teens. Glass is what there was. For the fishing I do where I live now glass is a lot more fun. I have cane and graphite rods as well but I fish glass almost all the time.


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Post 04 Dec 2017, 06:24 • #27 
Guide
Joined: 03/12/15
Posts: 269
Location: US-CT
I started with a Heddon 6 weight and a South Bend Finalist reel. Bought the combo for the heady sum of 10 bucks( a lot of money for a 10 year old) . Sadly that rod and reel were sold when graphite came about. I fished graphite until this spring when I came upon a pair of Fenwick classics.
A 7.6 for a 6 weight and a 7 for a 5/6. Both rods are circa 60's vintage.
I fell in love with both rods- the 6 weight slightly more than the 5/6. While I still fish the graphite,whenever the mood to feel nostalgic hits me, the glass rods are put into play.


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Post 04 Dec 2017, 09:14 • #28 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4094
Location: USA-CO
+1 to boondockz. It's the bend, and the feel of both cast and fish. For me, those result in better control. I'm not sure your experience is all that different. If you're consistently casting beyond 50', you're outside the territory where glass excels. Good casters such as you can certainly go well beyond that, of course, but a good CF rod would perhaps make it easier.


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Post 04 Dec 2017, 09:32 • #29 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
The empirical answer to this question.
Fiberglass fits the niche better than any other rod material - I'm talking 6' to 8' rods.
Cane rods around 7' make parabolic taper jewels. A progressive taper in cane and this length would require a thinner tip than most rod-builders are willing to tackle, and might not even be feasible.
Glass makes the best progressive rod tapers under 8'.

Image

When I started with glass was when I bought my first fly rod in 1974, a 9' WondeRod. My first good fly rod was 1979, 7-1/2' Fullflex A.
I returned to glass buying up my niche Phillipsons in the early 20-naughties.


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Post 04 Dec 2017, 09:55 • #30 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 10/09/09
Posts: 2796
Location: US-NM
Started in the mid 60's on fenwicks and then went to graphite in the early or mid 70's.We moved to NM. In 2004 and a lot of the streams are small and brushy and needed something to load close and quick bought a 7' 2/3 Steffen and been fishing glass now 90% of the time now.......aurelio


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Post 04 Dec 2017, 12:32 • #31 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
Tomah wrote:
+1 to boondockz. It's the bend, and the feel of both cast and fish. For me, those result in better control. I'm not sure your experience is all that different. If you're consistently casting beyond 50', you're outside the territory where glass excels. Good casters such as you can certainly go well beyond that, of course, but a good CF rod would perhaps make it easier.

I totally agree that glass is GREAT for up close and personal, and a more relaxed fly fishing style. Which is exactly why I enjoy using my 7'6" Mohawk Rainbow for brookies. For everything else though, I find myself doing ALOT of high precision casting....under over hanging branches, drop cast next to a specific rock, along under cut banks, and yah bigger rivers require longer reach. I'd say my average river casts are any where from 30 to 70 feet, longer if the need arises. I see my backing quite often at the end of a cast from my TFO 5wt. But glass is still fun and different! :)


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Post 05 Dec 2017, 23:22 • #32 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/27/06
Posts: 774
Location: SW Missouri Ozark Plateau
I got my first fly rod about 1960, a glass Shakespeare, when I was about 13 years old. These days, I like a couple of TL Johnson Synergy rods I built up from blanks, and a couple of Cabela's CGR glass rods and several 1970s glass Fenwicks. The CGR rods cast as well as some very expensive glass I have tried, and I only paid about $70 apiece for them. I also like fine bamboo rods and have several Orvis graphites. I have an 8 foot Hexagraph that is one of my favorites. I guess I'm "rod poor". Good glass is a real pleasure to fish at the normal distances most fish are caught at when the wind is not howling.


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Post 06 Dec 2017, 04:48 • #33 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Started fishing in 50s, started fiberglass in the 60s, started fly rods in the 70s.
Why? Because it is so much better than steel, so much cheaper than split cane and doesn't seem to break as easy as graphite. And all that stuff they said about feel and fish handling too.
Owned a few graphite over the years and cast a few more, had a very early Clearwater that I really liked but used 7wt line on 5wt rod to get it to work properly and it was the only graphite that ever fished for me consistently. Others cast well when the moon was in phase or the stars lined up. And all the ones I owned broke while fishing.


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Post 10 Dec 2017, 08:29 • #34 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/19/12
Posts: 1007
Location: Beantown
Started in 1977 - went on a hiking trip in Idaho with my dad and a bunch of guys he worked with. They told my dad (not then, and not ever a fly fisherman) that he needed a fly rod fish for the trout up in the mountains, so my dad bought a Fenwick 806 and a Medalist 1494 1/2. I still have that combo today - and I make sure to use it a few times every year on a local pond. Love it still!

I caught nothing on that trip to Idaho, but when I came home I kept using it. One day I was fishing a golf course pond with my younger cousins, who were catching and keeping 25 tiny bluegills they intended to eat, and which I ended up having to clean by myself - lots of fun! But between helping them unhook 3" bluegills I threw a muddler around on the 806 and caught a 12" largemouth - I was so excited!

Why do I fish glass? I think it's 2 things, and they combine in certain situations to make glass perfect.

No. 1 - Fighting fish on glass just feels more fun, I love the bend. When I fish I always want a rod matched to the biggest fish I could catch where I'm fishing so I don't overplay her if I hook her, because I'm going to let her go anyway. Reality for me of course is that like 98%+ of the fish I catch aren't the "big one" so having glass makes every fish fun to fight. When I fish for landlocked salmon around here every November I know I could hook a 24" fish, because I see them every year and because I landed one 2 years ago. I also l know 'bows once in a while run up this stream following the salmon, and 3 years ago someone caught a 5 pounder (he killed it and weighed it, unfortunately) and this year I landed one that was 18". But most of the landlocks I catch are 14" - 16". The Morgan 7 weight I use makes these fun but could certainly handle a "beast" if I were so lucky.

No. 2 - For fishing in close (<50 feet) I find glass just easier to cast. And when you're talking about funky casts, like kneeling on shore 2 feet above the water level with trees behind and above you while trying to roll cast a cone head streamer in front of a salmon 30 feet away in 12" of water, glass just let's you do things you could never (or I could never, at least) do with graphite.

Combine No. 1 & No. 2 you have situations where glass is by far (IMHO) the best tool.

Cheers!


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Post 10 Dec 2017, 08:48 • #35 
Guide
Joined: 09/05/17
Posts: 305
Location: On a Stream
I fished Bamboo and graphite for many years, primarily in the NE. Stopped for a long time due to work and family obligations, especially after my daughter started playing high level traveling sports which ate up all our weekends for many years. Recently got back into it and decided to go with fiberglass for a new start and really love the rods.


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Post 16 Dec 2017, 10:52 • #36 
Sport
Joined: 12/15/17
Posts: 59
Location: SW Idaho
I started in the mid 70's with a Fenwick 8.5 6 wt and Garcia Ambassadeur 156 reel. In the early 80's I got caught up in the graphite craze and built a Sage 9', I added a pristine used SA System 6 reel and extra spool. I moved to the Seattle area in 1994 and started sailing which put me on fly fishing hiatus for 20 years. About 5 years ago I dug that Sage out of the closet and went fishing in Northern Idaho with a sailing buddy. I moved back to Boise last year and got back into it with another long time sailing buddy, but my casting seemed to be off using my Sage and 'new' WF6 line. Well about 3 weeks ago I dug out the Fenwick and DT6 and started throwing a few casts in my back yard. WOW!


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Post 16 Dec 2017, 20:02 • #37 
New Member
Joined: 12/09/17
Posts: 6
Location: US-TX
Hello everyone,
My first post but I've been lurking for a while. I started fly fishing in 1980. I had access to a private 38 acre lake. I thought about fly fishing but was blown away by the prices when I visited my first fly shop. I went to a local sporting goods store and paid a whopping. $39 for a 7wt 9 foot, 2 piece Diawa fiberglass rod and Scientific Anglers click-and-pawl reel. I still have both and they are in great condition. The one thing I liked about that rod was that I could feel the rod load and it was so easy to know when to change from back cast to forward cast. I only fished yellow poppers, black ants, and gnats but I caught fish like I had never caught them before. I loved the entire exercise of fly fishing but especially that it was more than blind casting plugs or spinner baits non-stop. It just seemed like there was SOOOO much more to it, AND, I caught way more fish (WIN, WIN)!! I left to go back to school and I lost access to the lake so I didn't fish again for many years. Fast forward to November 2016 and I decided I wanted to try fishing again. I went to a local fly fishing shop and walked out with a TFO Lefty Kreh finesse 4wt and Ross Rapid reel with tipped, leader, flies, etc. I took a casting lesson and have started tying my own flies. I've had a blast fishing over the last year. I just purchased an 2wt, 6 ft 3in fiberglass Echo rod with TFO BVK reel. I haven't fished with this rod yet but I've cast it at a local park and found it to be very interesting. I'm looking forward to February/March when the local rivers and creeks come back to life with panfish, rio-grande cichlids and all types of bass. There is no other way that I would prefer to catch fish than with a fly rod and reel.


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Post 16 Dec 2017, 20:55 • #38 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4094
Location: USA-CO
Welcome, Davo! Sounds like you're off to a great (re)start.


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Post 17 Dec 2017, 09:30 • #39 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/11/05
Posts: 3327
Location: US-TX
I started fishing with fiberglass fly rods when I was in my pre-teens, about 52-53. I started earlier but with a green cane "pole" with a short fly line, leader, and popping bug; no reel. Caught lots of brim on this rig fishing with my Dad on the oxbow lakes of South Arkansas. Also caught tons of overhead limbs, logs and snags in the water. Frustrating time for Dad but he perservered. I saved my money and bought my first rig, an old conolon rod, cheap reel, and line that would not float unless it was greased and then only for a short time!!!-p-


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Post 20 Dec 2017, 22:30 • #40 
Guide
Joined: 04/27/08
Posts: 331
Location: US-PA
I started with graphite and moved to bamboo.

I didn’t even know people used fiberglass.

Then,I bought a reel I wanted on the auction site,and it was attached to a fiberglass rod.
I had no intention of fishing with the rod.
Then,one day,it was nasty out,and my way to the stream was on motorcycle,so,I figured I would use the crappy glass rod so i didn’t mess up a bamboo rod.

Ha! I found the fiberglass casted as well as bamboo. I was shocked.
Then ,I caught a trout ,and the fight was perfect.

That became my favorite rod,till I fell on it .

I still thought this was all a fluke. One day on Clark’s, bulldog or somebody,mentioned this site while discussing Martin reels .

I think that was the true turning point for me.


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Post 27 Jan 2018, 04:11 • #41 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/25/18
Posts: 553
Location: Brazoria County, TX
I started using glass about a year or two into fly fishing. I can’t remember why I got the 7/8 CGR, it was probably something I read on a forum and the price was right. I was already getting into fly fishing with shorter than 9’ fly rods from my kayak so the 7’6” length of the 7/8 CGR got my attention.

I fish glass for a number of reasons. One, I’m able to hold the cast in load longer than in a fast graphite rod which lets me influence the cast in ways I can’t do with fast graphite. This really plays out on the lake where I’m trying to get the fly under or between branches or to put it right next to a log or something along those lines. That long time in load also helps on short shots to moving redfish. There’s just feel and touch that I haven’t been able to find in the faster equivalent weight carbon rods. Casting a CGR is less of an athletic event than some of the fast, tip flexing carbon rods. It just makes for a more relaxing day out on the water.

Fiberglass really works for me after the take. When a big redfish suddenly changes direction, the nature of the glass rod has a lot of built in shock absorption to keep strained tippet intact. Sometimes a bigger fish will dive under the kayak and really get the rod in a bind. It’s not a good position for a rod, but so far the glass has withstood the extreme torque.

Fiberglass just feels less mechanical than carbon when casting and playing fish. There’s times out on the saltwater I still reach for carbon rods. Fast carbon rods are my wind rods. Otherwise. I’d rather have the glass rod in hand.


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