Well I have no idea what this is. I saw the aluminum down locking reel seat and the Fenwick grip and bought it. Anyone know anything about this rod. SF905

Graphite. I had a 6wt one and regret selling it. Give it a fair shake and see what happens.

I called Fenwick today. After being on hold for some time they said the early Streamer rods were a fiberglass/graphite mix. Other than that not a lot of info on it.

Walter

I once had the 7 1/2 5 wt. Gave it to a man who did not have a 5 wt. Lucky we who own the Streamer.

I just picked an SF905-2. Made in Taiwan, Graphite but with a significant swing weight and slow (maybe some glass in it). It casts with a 4wt or 5wt (I haven't had the chance to try a 6wt line on it yet). It's a little light for casting the streamers that I usually fish, but will be really nice for small poppers and light streamers.

I ended up buying this rod from Carl. I think he may regret selling it. This is not a bad six. I thought I would share some pics of the bend below. The first is with 2.5 onces which is similar to 79.9 gram bolt Fenwick used to deflect some of their rods. The second it with five ounces. I would suggest to anyone to take a look at one of these if you like softer rods. If I had my druthers, I woud either stiffen up some areas of the butt and put a seven on it or soften up some areas and use the six...

Carl, I bought that little rig from Mudhole. Looks like they no longer sell it. But it appears it is still available at Swapland Tackle - I have no financial interest. The link is http://swamplandtackle.com/Backlash_Too ... tails.aspx.

You can probably build something too.

Any opinions on the 8wt? I just got one for a song.

It does look nice. I plan to use it along with my glass fenwick 8wt for pike/tiger muskie fishing when the real big flies aren't needed. There's an impressive fighting butt on it.

Typically reviving an 8 year dead thread isn't very productive.

Despite all the advertising hype in the 70s/80s/90s graphite rods had fiberglass in them. A layer of glass was used to add 'hoop' fibers to the hollow rod blank. Eventually graphite fibers became thin enough they could bend sufficiently to be used as hoop fibers. Hoop fibers keep the rod blank round and the axial fibers from splitting apart when the rod is bent. You can't live without them in a hollow rod blank.

As far as telling the difference between new and old, perhaps do a Google image search for "Fenwick Streamer" and there may be photos of both versions. There will likely be a lot of noise to wade through.


Tom

Thanks to both of you for your guidance.
I feel sometimes that I get accused of making transgressions that I do not intend or even understand and I am starting to get gun shy about posting. I am really enthusiastic about this forum and believe I can contribute information that folks may have not yet come across.
I typically try to exhaust all what I believe are pretty comprehensive research tactics before I post questions while always remaining open to additional information and fully expecting to have overlooked the obvious.
In this case, I have found one photo of the previously discussed 9’ 5wt and 3 postings of the 8.5’ 6wt for sale on another forum.
What I noticed is a big gap in the Fenwick history between 1988 and 2000. Right around that time Fenwick was bought by Berkley.
The “streamer” was trademarked by Berkley USA around 1992-1994 and expired in 2000 despite other databases saying it is still alive.
But at that time Berkley International which eventually established Pure Fishing was headquartered in Taiwan and had control of the Fenwick trademarks. Primarily for the Japanese market but some rods made their way to US distribution. That accounts for many rods labeled Fenwick Taiwan including the Classics without much documentation. I realize now that the production history for that era is either lost or is written in Mandarin or Cantonese which I read neither.
I probably won’t find much more about this other than that a few folks love it. Labeled as a 6wt, my impression is that it feels like a medium action 5 wt. Only experimentation will determine what works for me. Others might have different opinions.
Thank you both for your suggestions.