Hi all. I'm new to this forum but am loving it so far. I recently posted in the "wanted" section about looking for original yellow Scott PowR Ply era glass rods. One of you awesome forum members directed me to a vintage tackle dealer in FL earlier this morning and after a couple phone calls and early-on dashed hope and broken dreams (another buyer beat me to the punch), I had given up. Then, my phone rang at 2PM this afternoon and the tackle dealer let me know that the original buyer backed out, and I was next in line. I hit the fly rod lottery, hah!

I'm now the proud owner of 2 - yes 2 - vintage Scott glass rods. I have a (2 7/8 oz) F75 - 7'6", 4-piece 5wt with gold anodized slide-band reel seat and a F84 - 8'4", 2-piece 5wt with a rose gold anodized slide-band reel seat, now in my collection, both in their original tubes. I would love some more info on these rods if anyone out there has any they could share. I'll try to post photos... we'll see. Looks like it won't let me do it from my iPad. May have to upload them later when I get back to my computer. I'm currently traveling.

Is there a gouge on interpreting serial numbers? The serial number "looks" like 73-775, as best I can tell but the first digits have almost completely worn off of the 4-piece rod, but I hope there's enough left of it to be helpful with dating it, etc. The 8'4" rod has a serial number of K84-2099.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I have an f84. It's a decent rod. The k in the serial number means it was a kit rod.

Thanks for this info! That makes sense. The wraps and epoxy on this rod are not what I would call "Scott quality" and the threads are a different color on the upper half of the rod than on the lower section, so I can see how it would have been a kit rod. Looks like the writing may have still been done by Harry Wilson, and possibly the grip too.

whrlpool - if you happen to find one of those vintage Scott ads in the back of your old FFM stash, I'd be interested in acquiring a copy or two, if that's something of interest!

Are these rods worth anything?

Thanks
Matt

I should have been more specific. Early Scott’s that have the K before the model. The kit rods.

Thanks for all of the info! I think I’ll fish it.
It’s an 8ft9in 9wt. 5oz. 2pc.
From what I can tell an early 70’s rod in great shape. Looks to have a factory handle, reel seat and butt as well as the factory writing. I’ll post some pics tomorrow.
Much appreciated!
Pics added. Also the ferrules don’t seem to go together as far as normal. I tried cleaning them and it’s still doesn’t seem to fit right. Any ideas on how far these should go in?

That is a very large gap. How much spigot length fits into the ferrule? Does the ferrule have a clear finish on the spigot?


Tom

I'm suspecting the female part has been shortened.
Are both sections equal length?

In a couple photos it looks like the original builder extended the finish from the ferrule wrap up onto the male ferrule. The spigot ferrule should not have any finish on it.


Tom

The female ferrule looks a bit odd to me.
The SF rods I owned have female ferrules with wraps all the way to the end of the female ferrules

That looks plausible. If that's the case you will need to use extremely fine wet or dry or steel wool to remove finish - like 2000 to 6000.

That's a nice old steelhead rod from the '70s and I'm curious about the serial number. Can you list it? But the wrap on the female ferrule looks correct to me. Kit rods on old yellow Scotts came with yellow reinforcing wraps on both male (about 7/16") and female (about 1.5") with alignment dots in black. Both wraps were doubled at the end - maybe 5/16" on the tip/female and 1/8"-3/16" on the butt/male. Dots went on the double wrapped areas. If the male won't fit into the tip more than half an inch, there's something in or on the ferrule, the guide wrap was done with far too much tension, one or the other ferrule sides has been crushed slightly, or the tip has been trimmed to refit the ferrule. Or some combination of those. Worry about cracks and crushing first as that would require some work to correct. If you've cleaned both male and female and neither is crushed or cracked, try inserting the ferrule to where it won't go in any further (don't force it) then twist the male a dozen of so times quickly and remove it. You may be able to see where it's bearing or you can touch the spigot to your lip to feel where it's hot. You should also see residue of anything that's an obstruction and you can carefully scrape that away with a small round fie or dental pick. You can remove the guide wrap and see if the fit improves. If the tip/female has been shortened in an attempt to refit, you can gently reduce the diameter of the spigot with 220 grit sandpaper, twisting the ferrule between your fingers and the sand paper and going very slow. You want to keep the taper of the spigot the same as the inside of the female. Let us know what you discover.
Larry