HI Folks
Just a wee spiel about my project i've had on the boil since early this year. the final step was christening the first demo rod last night.
As you all know, Glass is my addiction (along with bamboo
) and the one i can actually build economically for everyone to share.
The last 8 years i have been mostly building Epics, but this year with the lockdown, my shelves got emptied of stock, so i had the opportunity to do something i've been wanting to do for a while.
I've built on a lot of different blanks over the years and have a really good idea of what i like and what works. So i got together digitally with Mike McFarland in pennsylvania as he is the best independent blank maker and the one guy who understands glass better than most. So after a couple of prototypes and some cross market exploration he has made me a Blank which is exclusive to me.
I knew i wanted 7'9" as it has the reach of an 8ftr but is light in the hand like a 7'6", it had to be a 4wt for some folk and a 5wt for others (this is much easier with glass as it depends how you cast as to what you like on most rods) i wanted 4 pieces and it had to be Clear glass with a colour option. So we have Clear or Warm yellow. It has a distinct Para style action which means it can be used to present very delicately but also wound up to get some distance with very little effort as the blank does all the work. Its much lighter than you expect and has the balls to deal with double figure fish (the final prototype handled a 9/10lb fresh run salmon with no issues)
The conundrum was S-Glass or E-glass and Why? Sglass is not a new material, it’s been around as long as Eglass, since WW2. So the all new all singing and dancing material spiel is just BS (the only real advances are in resin technology). The main difference..... Sglass is 90% unidirectional fibres and needs a separate scrim cloth to keep it round and give it strength. It is by nature faster and recovers quickly but can have some tip wobble as the scrim is very light at the tip. Now faster is not always what folk expect it to be. Eglass however is 70% unidirectional and 30% cross weave, this means no separate scrim cloth so it is lighter for a given size. It has its own built in strength and is less prone to tube deflection than Sglass, so given the right taper it feels stiffer, crisper and recovers faster, but at the same time it bends a little deeper and smoother.
I’ve tried Sglass and Eglass in the same spec rod, the Eglass feels nicer to cast, recovers quicker and is lighter in the hand. It’s slightly larger in diameter but not enough you would ever notice. I was a complete convert once I tried it.
Old school glass was made from Eglass because it was the best material for the job
Sglass has been pushed to try and distance folks minds from Old school glass( which was actually very good if you bought a nice one) so largely just a marketing ploy which I fell for for a good while.
Sglass is still better for saltwater applications as you are building strong fast rods for the winds and the weight is not such and issue, but for smooth trout dryfly rods , quality Eglass is best. No paint and Eglass means it’s the strongest and lightest you can build a blank.
Consequently i have gone for E-glass for my trout rod, but i have access to Mike McFarlands brilliant GTX (S-Glass) range for saltwater rods and they come in Black or Clear glass
I've also got a Carbon Nymphing 10'3" 3wt blank that Mike has sent me to try out, so there will be a Demo of this available to send out to folk for feedback. I've no idea how to use this , so it will be going into the hands of guys who do this kind of fishing all the time to see if its a worthwhile addition.
Having a Glass dryfly rod and a specialist nymphing rod as my own two products should keep things niche enough to keep me interested and amused during the long winter months.
The first batch of blanks are basically all spoken for and my winter is fully booked (although i may be able to squeeze one more Clear glass build in) But both Demo rods will be available for anyone who wants to try them out.
So the Product of 6 months of talking and Design work from Mike McF has culminated in this. My first Glass rod on my own Blank , its a 7'9" 4pc 4/5wt . Quite poetically this is the 100th glass rod i have built and my 250th rod overall. Which came as quite a surprise when i worked it out. For something that is a Hobby, it's obvious that I must get bored easily
If anyone has any questions, just ask. There are good reasons behind every descision made during this project.
Cheers
Sandy
