Vintage Hardy Fibalite Glass Rod

Wetswinger · Sep 21, 2023

A few weeks back I was inquiring, on this site, about what were some of the quality glass rods from the 60's and 70's. I have a 1974 Fenwick 8", 6# that I love and wondered what the competition offered back in the day. Several replies mentioned that rods produced by "Fisher" blanks, out of California were considered some of the best. A little research followed and I found out that Fisher produced blanks for Scientific Anglers and also Hardy out of England. In fact, Hardy had a big California connection. Hardy was having their tapers made in So. Cal. at the Fisher shop and shipped to England for build-up. Thing was, these rods had become so popular and volumes so high that shipping was eating all the profits. Hardy's solution was the hire Fisher Rod Co. to design and build a state of the art factory for them in England. It was finished in 1968. So most consider that the dividing date between California and English produced non-cane Hardy rods. Hardy called their glass rods Fibalite Glass. They were introduced in1965 using Fisher blanks and then their own blanks after 1968. Their first big hit was with the JET models. That's the other California connection. John E Terantino (JET) was a renowned expert caster and rod designer that hung out at the esteemed Golden Gate Casting Club in San. Fran. He was hired by Hardy to design some rods and was very successful. The Jets were produced from 1967 until1975 at Tarantino's death. In 1979 until 1983 the Fibalite Perfection was introduced and is considered by many, the best of the Hardy Glass rods. That brings me to this rod. This is the Richard Walker Superlight "Reservoir" Fibalite rod. They were built in 1969 through1985 and was the number one rod in Europe for years, very popular. This one was built in 1975. It is 9ft 3in long and rated a 7/8 weight. 4.5 oz. total. This will carry my intermediate line out of my pram. It cast nice and easy, just like me. LOL. This is the second rod I've bought from England. If you look around there are some bargain vintage rods over there for sale. Shipping sucks but all told reasonable none the less.....On the graph; Red is Bamboo, Blue is fiberglass and Black is graphite..

troutstalker · Sep 21, 2023

Congratulations on your new rod! It sounds like a gem. I hope you really enjoy fishing it.

Tim Cottage · Sep 23, 2023

Very informative. Thanks for putting this together.
It is my understanding that Fisher also supplied graphite blanks for Orvis until they could roll their own or make other arrangements . I have one of these rods named The Performer, 9ft, 2pc. It's a nice casting rod that I only fish once every few years due to sentimental reasons.

Wetswinger · Oct 13, 2023

Took my Hardy out for its first days use. Its a user friendly rod. Flings the fly out there with little effort with its soft action. Tried some more exuberant casting using a double haul and that was successful also. I have decided to change out the guides and tip top to modern sized ones. They're small, oxidized and rough. I feel they stick a little bit. There's only 8 on a 9ft rod. A modern rod would have 10. I'll clean them up for use on some project in the future as they are unique. English snake guides twist the opposite direction than American...

mcswny · Oct 13, 2023

Wetswinger said:
I have decided to change out the guides and tip top to modern sized ones.

How do you remove the old ones?

Bambooflyguy · Oct 13, 2023

I cut the wraps on top of the guide foot not to damage the bamboo. The only downside is a lot of vintage bamboo rods when you add guides, some will leave ghost marks where the originals were….but the fish don’t care!