I recently posted about a couple of Wanigas fiberglass rods that I purchased, a Deluxe and another model that I had never heard of called a Superlite. The 8’ 5wt Deluxe was in fairly rough shape. Most of the guides were rusted to varying degrees, except for one, that had previously been replaced with a non-matching chrome guide. There were numerous chips in the varnish and several of the wraps had either already let go or were starting to wear and fray. The ferrules were snug, but the japaning on them was chipped quite a bit and looked pretty rough. That being said, the blank was in good shape, the ferrules were snug and fit well together, the grip was solid, and the metal realseat wasn’t in too bad a shape. I sent the rod to Mark McKellip for refinishing. Mark used to wrap rods for Art back when he still had the Wanigas shop open and knew the original specs. He stripped the varnish and old wraps and replaced all the guides with NOS guides that matched the originals. He wrapped the rod with 00 black nylon. Art typically used size A nylon, but this looks even better I think. He stripped the japaning off the ferrules which are the brass style stamped Super Z ferrules and blued them which turned out beautiful. He then dip varnished the rod. The photos don’t really due the rod justice, but they were the best I could get with my phone. Mark did an absolutely beautiful job on the rod and I couldn’t be happier. And to top it all off, the rod casts really well. I had several guys who are into glass rods cast the rod and the concensus was that it has a stronger, faster action that is similar to many modern glass rods, and is a true 5 wt. The really weird thing is that this is an old rod (mid 1950s) but the action is not slow like most of the rods of that era. I don’t know why they didn’t stick with this sort of action instead of going to slower actions. Also, most of the rods of this length back in that day and age would typically be 6-8 wt rods, but this is a true 5 wt. Now-a-days, we are using fiberglass for tapers that are lighter, longer, and faster, but it turns out that’s nothing new. They made similar rods out of glass 60-70 years ago, but for some reason they chose to leave that action for slower and heavier rods. Why they chose to do that is beyond me.

Very nice........Aurelio

I got to test cast that rod. We tried a 4.5wt and a 5.5 wt. The 4.5 didn’t load it as well as a 5 and the 5.5 was slightly overloaded. So that rod is a true 5wt. I’ve not cast that long a rod from the 50’s that did that and does it well. Indeed, if someone could do that in the 50’s, why didn’t they keep doing it. And to say McKellip did a nice job restoring it is a vast understatement. It’s a gorgeous looking rod. If you want a glass rod built from a blank you won’t find better. But ask for his signature reelseat. And if you want a Young or Dickerson cane rod built, Mark is at the top of his game.