I broke a self-imposed rule, and went back to an old rod. Or, rather, an old rod series I had moved on from.

I found a Hardy Drifter on the auction site, and got it for £60 - there were no other bidders.

It’s an odd rod from the Fibalite years: a Hardy-rolled blank but, whereas the early Drifters had the white Fisher-type spigot, this one has “normal” Fibalite brown spigots.

The Drifters were designed primarily for lough fishing from a boat, and so are very long: some were 10ft 5”, this one is 10ft 9”, and later ones were 11ft. Line weights vary from the most usual 5-weight up to 7-weight. But the overall design was to minimise false casting, and maximise control of the bob fly (on a 2- or 3-fly cast) as far from the boat as possible - its a lovely way of fishing when conditions are right.


My intended use for this rod is a bit different: I want it for fishing (mainly at night) for sea-run brown trout on Welsh rivers. For this I need a rod that can control a lot of water (mending and reaching), and cast down- or up-stream with the minimum of “noise” or false casting (otherwise I just get hooked up in the trees!).

I lawn cast the rod this morning: a 4-weight line was unimpressive, but a fairly light 6-weight went right out: far better than I hoped. Next stop is to get the rod’s designed line: a DT-5F - that should make roll casting easier.

The red-tipped green whippings are typical of Hardy’s “named” Fibalites: Drifter, Little Lake, Superlite, Invincible and Esk - all relatively specialist rods for their time. The small diameter of the stripping ring always amuses me, and I wonder at how little varnish Hardy put on the whippings!


One particular feature of the “named” Fibalites was the awful, cheap reel fitting: a plastic combined end cap and screw thread, and an aluminium locking ring. It’s always been the worst thing about these rods (I also had the Invincible and Superlite). If I get good use out of this Drifter, I have a full-metal reel fitting, which will accept a threaded butt extension if needed. This could let me use the rod for Spey casting, if required.


Our season opens on 1 April: I will fish the Drifter in anger then.

lovely.. my brother had an 8' 6wt Fibalite with those green/red wraps, always thought it a handsome rod.
happy to hear there are still sea-run browns to be found.. kinda thought they would have followed the Atlantic salmon into near-extinction.

In a 5wt too. I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those. My 10' Fibalite Perfection 6/7 is a fun rod. A longer 5 would be neat.

Sounds like fun ! I've long been curious about fishing in the UK.