Bambluegilled

[Tailingloop]

Another bluegill outing this morning. Decided to go with some old school gear (older than fiber glass)

Decided to fish bamboo (fine Tonkin cane) today. Vintage Orvis "99" 7' 6wt made in the 1960s. Though marked for a 6wt it casts a 4wt line nicely. Fun rods. Paired with a Scientific Anglers System 5 reel. These were made for Scientific Anglers by Hardy. Essentially, it is a Hardy Marquis with Scientific Angler markings.

Two hours in some cool drizzly weather produced a bunch of nice fish.

Water level at Murray is rising some again. The changing levels have messed with the bluegill spawn, making it harder to find big fish on nests.

No more fishing until after Memorial Day.

[TaBASSco]

Bravo! I used to use a 8 ft Horrocks Ibitson tonkin cane rod. It didn't have a line weight on it it, but I tried a 5 weight, which worked out well. I used to roll cast little rubber bugs near the tulies in the south end of Cuyamaca for gills with it. I can still hear the little smacking sound they made when they ate the bug. But I digress....

[Tailingloop]

I can still hear the little smacking sound they made when they ate the bug.

I love that "smacking" sound.

So far only two topwater smacks this year.

[Fishtricks]

cool

[Mcfish]

There's some monster bluegills and redears in San V this year!

[kirkboat]

Murray is my favorite lake these days. I wish they would stop messing with the water level. I fish from a float tube and Murray is about perfect for that. Look forward to meeting you on the water some time.

[Rattus]

Nice setup. I heard the SA System rods are equally nice. How would you compare your cane rods to your fiberglass rods?

[Tailingloop]

Most of the rods wearing the Scientific Anglers label over the years have been pretty decent rods. Same with most of their reels. The old SA System glass rods were built on J. Kennedy Fisher blanks I believe. The later graphite rods were made by U.S makers then later in Asia. The Scientific Angler System 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 reels were made by Hardy in England and are re-badged Marquis designs. The largest saltwater system reels, called the System 3 series (a deep Maroon color) were made in the US (I forget by which company) but were comparable to other high end machined aluminum reels. The Scientific Anglers System 2 and System 1 reels and Mastery reels were made by BFR (British Fly Reels - which made reels for many big labels such as Orvis and Cortland) in England and later in China when the company moved production there. There was a later System 4 series of reel that was a machined large arbor reel that was produced in the 2000's for a short period of time.

My cane rods range from soft and slow, but not noodle, to quicker actions compared to medium fast graphite. With modern tools builders can do all sorts of things with tapers and with hollowing out sections of the rods (hollowed tips date back at least to the 1950's). My oldest cane rod is a 9ft refinished rod that was probably built by Union Hardware in the 1920s. It casts a modern 5wt line nicely and has an action similar to a glass rod I have built on a J. Kennedy Fisher 5wt blank. I have a 7 ft 4wt that has really slow action. My latest acquisition is a 7' 3wt that is comparable to a modern medium fast graphite rod in action. I have an 8.5 ft with a medium fast action that casts a 250 grain sinking line or an 8wt floating line nicely.

My glass rods range for the slowish action to Fisher 5wt and a slow custom built 7' 3wt built on a Lamiglass blank to a medium action Scott F81 8' 6wt from the 1970's. The Scott F81 seems a bit faster than a Fenwick Feralite and is also a bit lighter.

All of these rods, cane and glass have different personalities and require adjustments to the casting stroke to get the best from each. But they are all fun to fish with. I can't really give a general comparison between the glass and cane rods. My slowest cane and glass are similar in action. My fastest cane have a faster action than my fastest glass rods and even a couple of my graphite rods. In most cases the glass rods are a bit lighter in weight than the cane rods.