# Pictures of old rod



## ellisredfish (Jul 5, 2005)

I have a football game hangover today and don't feel like doing anything else. Besides I will be 74 years old this month and I have earned the right to do nothing. However, I wanted to post a couple of pictures of an old rod. It is built on a Fenwick LB 965 blank, the old Pacificstik blank. I thought these would be around for ever and only bought three and one of my friends had me build him a couple of rods using these blanks. We use them for light surf duty and have caught a lot reds on them especially during the winter after a very cold front. 

You will notice some discoloration on the guide wrap. That is caused by not thoroughly flooding the thread with CP and using size A thread over size A thread. I now use C or D over A and really flood the thread with CP. Live and learn.


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## pats (Jul 20, 2013)

I like it


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## Marcos Domingues (Mar 10, 2013)

Purdy rod Ellis , awesome work


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## jaycook (Sep 13, 2007)

Sharp job. Nice bright colors.


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## xxxxxQTRODS (Nov 17, 2009)

*Thank berkley for putting fenwick out of business*

That is really a nice job and I miss a lot of fenwick product and happy 74th


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## ellisredfish (Jul 5, 2005)

Thanks. Yeah I am going downhill on roller skates. The thing I miss most is my youth and my travels. Youth because I could party all night and still make it to work on time. Travels because I met a lot of nice people along the way in the USA, Mexico, and Europe. I ain't done yet.


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## johnmyjohn (Aug 6, 2006)

Good job young man. Anybody can stick together new stuff, the test is dealing with old.


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## baytownboy (Jul 24, 2009)

Back in the 60's I was wrapping rods for my own use, but too many people wanted their own custom rod. I had a little shop out on the old Hiway 146 in Baytown called The Rod Shop.
This rod was finished in the middle 60's with the now famous "PISTOL GRIP" handle. Blank was about the only one you could get back then was a Lamiglass golden yellow. Carbide guides, cork, black rubber or the pistol grip handle. It as called the chevron wrap back then. 
Most popular Bass lenght was 5' 8".
I did wrap approx 10 to 12 golden rods on a 7' blank for an old guide here in town. He came in and ordered 5 to his specs, and i sold them for a good price of $20.00 each. He came in a few weeks later and ordered somemore, same price. 
A short time later, a man walked in one day with one of "my rods" I had built and needed the tip replaced. I asked where he got it and he said from the ol guide he always fished with. I asked if you don't mind how much did you have to pay, and he said $30.00 !! So the ol booger was buing from my and selling and making money also. In approx 3 weeks he wanted somemore and I said the new price now will be $30.00 And with no hesitation, he paid for them, and said, "I will be back for them in a about a week" 
I later sold out to another man here in town.


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## ellisredfish (Jul 5, 2005)

I had a bass rod with one of those grips and the grip was quite heavy. In those days bass rods were short as you have stated. Years later I decided to bass fish with my seven foot popping rods. My friend and I were bass fishing and two guys came by in their boat and I heard one say, "Hey, that guy is fishing with a surf rod." 

There was a tackle shop in Baytown where I would sometimes buy rod building thread because he had a large assortment. He used to store his thread in a glass case with uv light. He said that it helped to keep the thread from weakening. Maybe it was your old shop that you had sold.


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## PuddlePirate (Feb 7, 2005)

Here's my early 1970s vintage Fenwick with her original VARMAC reel seat and red grips. I did my first build on this blank around 1975....she's on a wrap here, from 1987...her third and final rebuild. The reel is the long discontinued ABU 7500 CT Big Game but back in my early years, I used an old trusty Penn 140 Squidder...which I still have.

This rod and I go back when the Gulf Coast Fishing Pier, Galveston, which was literally brand new and the old SEA ARAMA (sp?) was just to the left of the Pier's overflow parking lot, where many of us cast netted mud minnows in the old salt pond back there. I fished with Jackie Boraleno and his best friend Frankie, Mike (a rodeo cowboy fella) Ted Davis, Dick Davis and Mr. Davis and a big fellow named Henry who was a butcher by trade, known to cast a Penn 4/0 with a live bull mullet on the left corner. Robbie owned and managed the pier with his wife and each and everyday we listened to old Big Band music, Frank Sinatra etc..on the pier speakers LOL! If they played that music on today's pier...I bet some of us would have the entire pier to ourselves LOL!

I fished this stick from Virginia\Maryland Assateague Island, Cape Hatteras, South Florida, Galveston to Corpus Christi Texas & California during a 20 year Coast Guard career. I've taken care of these old Fenwicks and I've had a few make offers to buy and a couple of bad folks try to steal them as well. Knock on Fenglass.....they keep on fishing without issue!










Here's my other early 1970s vintage Fenwick with my Son and I in Port Aransas. Varmac reel seat with the original Neoprene blue grips. This final wrap was finished in 1990 (I believe?). Back in the day, she had the old chrome steel guides, which I can't remember who made, using another Penn 140 moving into an ABU 7000 when that reel first hit the scene.


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Sweet!


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## PuddlePirate (Feb 7, 2005)

Here's my 1983 Fenwick, mentioned previously. Started out 14' and cut her down from the tip....not a long caster by any means, now 11'. But she was made for what you see here. This wrap goes back to 1987....she still fishes very well.

One of a few down on PINS. Daiwa 600H.


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## baytownboy (Jul 24, 2009)

ellisredfish said:


> I had a bass rod with one of those grips and the grip was quite heavy. In those days bass rods were short as you have stated. Years later I decided to bass fish with my seven foot popping rods. My friend and I were bass fishing and two guys came by in their boat and I heard one say, "Hey, that guy is fishing with a surf rod."
> 
> There was a tackle shop in Baytown where I would sometimes buy rod building thread because he had a large assortment. He used to store his thread in a glass case with uv light. He said that it helped to keep the thread from weakening. Maybe it was your old shop that you had sold.


That used to be my shop. The Rod Shop.
I sold it to Richard Marshall. When I owned it, it was ony the front section. When Richard bought it, he opended up the back and the other side. He lived behind the shop then.
When I had it, a barber shop was in the same bulding next door.


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## ellisredfish (Jul 5, 2005)

I used to wade fish a lot off of the Texas City Levee and on the way home I would take 146 to Baytown to buy supplies. Marshall was the only one in town that had Gudebrod gunmetal color. They were nice folks there. I still have some of those old spools.


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## Pods (Jan 11, 2006)

Boy does that rod bring back memories. When I first attempted to do a chevron I was beyond aggravated. That was one wrap I could not get down. Many trash cans with plenty of thread was the outcome. Then one day it hit me and I made several, do you remember it being called the "Pineapple wrap"? Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Pods


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## ellisredfish (Jul 5, 2005)

I ain't that old (lol).


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