Early Fenwick

Russell

Russell

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Have found quite a few nice rods at pawnshops over the years and bounced into a local one in town and found a very early Fenwick Faralite FF84. B on the Serial number so around 61' it was manufactured and carries hand written model and line wt, maylar wraps as well as a patent pending faralite sticker.
I belive this rod was a blank made by grizzley right before they moved blanks in house. I'm not sure of all the details but I already owned this rod in a later build date with the more familiar fenwick faralite build and it is a great rod. Looking forward to comparing this early one to the later model.
Anyone else out there have some early fenwicks?

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I don’t have much experience with Fenwick glass — but I do own some of the first generation Fenwick HMG graphite rods, from ‘74 and ‘75. My favorite rod is a 7’6” 5wt and I like the 8’0” 6wt a lot. They’re a good fit for my favorite kinds of fishing, and for my budget. I suppose these rods are probably closer to their glass predecessors than they are to high-end modern rods but they obviously had a huge impact when they were new. I believe the HMG blanks were developed in Washington, in a race with JKFisher/Winston and Scott. (I had it mind they came from Grizzly but I’m not sure about that.) A lot of them blew up on fish, I’ve read, but that hasn’t happened yet for me.

The first gen rods are sanded grey, with green and white wrapping, and lettered serial numbers.

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Hoofer said:
I don’t have much experience with Fenwick glass — but I do own some of the first generation Fenwick HMG graphite rods, from ‘74 and ‘75. My favorite rod is a 7’6” 5wt and I like the 8’0” 6wt a lot. They’re a good fit for my favorite kinds of fishing, and for my budget. I suppose these rods are probably closer to their glass predecessors than they are to high-end modern rods but they obviously had a huge impact when they were new. I believe the HMG blanks were developed in Washington, in a race with JKFisher/Winston and Scott. (I had it mind they came from Grizzly but I’m not sure about that.) A lot of them blew up on fish, I’ve read, but that hasn’t happened yet for me.

The first gen rods are sanded grey, with green and white wrapping, and lettered serial numbers.

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I’ve always heard great things about the early fenwick graphite but I’ve never had the chance to try one. I do enjoy early graphite rods by Winston fisher loomis etc.
 
I have a not-so-rare FF 857 that I enjoy throwing occasionally. Most recently I found some magic with a Wulff 4wt Ambush for single hand Spey and/or overhead. As I recall it also liked the 6wt Outbound Short when my SRC rod was in for repair. These were, and still are, some fine serviceable rods.
I had a FF 806 that hucked line further (for me) than any of my top shelf rods. That was in the park (with a DT6) and just for fun.
 
What's up with the 2 tension nobs, let's see the inside?
 
So winding in resistance as well as outgoing tension, interesting, are they silent or loud?
 
I've been waiting to find one of these for many years and they just don't show up. I had to jump on this one. Fenwick feralite FF1200-3 two handed rod from around 65' I think. I believe this might have been designed for overhead casting but I cannot wait to try out some modern spey lines and see how it casts. A very early two handed rod for the west coast.
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Wow, that’s new to me, early Fenwick Spey.
I do recall a buddy (not a FF’er) bringing an old borrowed Fenwick 5wt on a quasi fishing/camping/golfing/drinking annual Spring “Fishing” trip. I’m probably not quite a connoisseur, but it was in fact something special to throw in the meadow. I at least was impressed. Just to say what some of you already know, a few of those Fenwicks were (& still are) exceptional tools.
 
Russell said:
I've been waiting to find one of these for many years and they just don't show up. I had to jump on this one. Fenwick feralite FF1200-3 two handed rod from around 65' I think. I believe this might have been designed for overhead casting but I cannot wait to try out some modern spey lines and see how it casts. A very early two handed rod for the west coast.
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Dude, that's gonna be a rocket with a skagit.
 
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