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Post 11 Feb 2023, 14:32 • #1 
Master Guide
Joined: 03/09/15
Posts: 684
Location: Arkansas
At the coffee shop doing some research on this spinning rod. I’ll post more pics later. I’ve seen these over the years but not bothered picking one up. Did some digging through the usual rotating pile of rods at my favorite flea market.

Seems like it could be fiberglass. Light action. Bends deep. Seems like painted fiberglass. Could be graphite though right?

Any info would be great. Whether glass or graphite, I bought it to fish. Came with a nice Browning reel too - $11 combo.



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Post 11 Feb 2023, 19:47 • #2 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
that looks like Berkley Specialist S-glass - really nice blanks. I had an 8' 7-wt fly rod that was really sweet (at a time I had too many 8' 7-wts)
EVA grip, which others didn't like, but the blank quality was well beyond the quality implied by the EVA grip.


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Post 11 Feb 2023, 22:34 • #3 
Master Guide
Joined: 03/09/15
Posts: 684
Location: Arkansas
Thanks for the input. Much appreciated. I hope it’s glass but I’ll fish it either way. It does need to be cleaned up. There is some play between the foregrip and reel seat. Seems solid enough to fish as I tug on the blank and hold the seat. New grips and seat will need to be ordered sometime. Cork seems kinda dried out a bit too. Lovely rod though. Narrow diameter throughout. Bends deeply - not applying tons of pressure. Will keep looking up info. Gonna be a fun rod.

Oh and a Silaflex spinning reel. Must’ve been part of a nice combo.





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Post 12 Feb 2023, 00:49 • #4 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Both the caramel color and the script font match the age of Berkley Specialist S-glass - early 80s.

Of course Browning didn't make reels, but looks like Zebco made that one after they bought Cardinal from Abu.
Zebco also owned Lew's at that time, and provided those to Browning, as well.
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Post 12 Feb 2023, 10:31 • #5 
Sport
Joined: 01/02/23
Posts: 25
Location: Metro Detroit, MI
Zebco was only the distributor of the Cardinal in the US. Due to contractual obligations with Garcia Tackle, they couldn't distribute the Cardinal since it was the primary competitor to the Mitchell 300. Garcia was the distributor for both the ABU Ambassadeur and Mitchell 300. ABU sought out Zebco to distribute the Cardinal, and that's how the Zebco Cardinal was born. It's identical to the European Abu Cardinal, except the sticker on the side plate says Zebco. Everything else is the same. The Zebco Cardinal even has the Swedish Royal Crest like every other Swedish made ABU of the day. It wouldn't be until 1981 when ABU bought Garcia Tackle, forming Abu Garcia as we know it. To many, this was the downfall of ABU as they then started to focus more on downmarket products instead of the higher end like they did in previous years.

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Post 12 Feb 2023, 11:00 • #6 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Thanks friend.

What I was referring to was the "development" of the Cardinal by Zebco.
Starting with that design, they derived their own reels, very likely represented in the Browning reel shown by our OP.

In the '90s, they built a graphite-plastic version for Lew's, which is another story for another time, bemoaning the light-weight craze (Fail) of '90s spinning reels.

ps - the Cardinal goes back further to Abu's purchase of Thommen, also where Abu also acquired the tradename "Record".
Image


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 13 Feb 2023, 07:36, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 12 Feb 2023, 11:54 • #7 
Sport
Joined: 01/02/23
Posts: 25
Location: Metro Detroit, MI
Interesting, thanks for the history lesson. I was under the impression Record and Cardinal were ABU's own in-house names.


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Post 15 Mar 2023, 15:25 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
I believe those are glass rods.Bought my son and stepson each a berkley trout rod but they were red i believe.They were 9 and 1o a nd the rods made thru a couple seasons which if you knew these southside knuckleheads was a minor miracle.They caught everything on them,a little light for some of the catfish and carp in the river but were great rods for the money.Bought these around 03.


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