Fiberglass rod colors

[BobHRAH 0]

Anyone have any idea why modern fiberglass rods are almost all done in 'goofy' (to me) colors? 

Thanks, Bob H

[gadabout 0]

I’m guessing you grew up in the graphite age, so everything that’s not black or gray looks “goofy”.  Personally, I like the color of most glass rods.  I’m guessing that the manufacturers deliberately don’t want you to mistake a glass rod for a graphite rod, so they produce them in other colors.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I was lucky enough to have a supplier of fiberglass rods that actually made them from scratch, all those years ago, when I began to make rods for myself and others.  The basic materials back then allowed you to produce a rod blank that was either white, honey colored, brown, or black - and old Gus, the fellow I dealt with at GatorGlass would actually make the blanks you needed (but not fly blanks, everything was for conventional gear).   You had two choices, the way the blank came off the mandrel with a fine ridged surface, or a sanded blank (done on a center-less lathe in a water bath).  Sanded rod blanks, once dried properly could be painted any color you desired - or left as is until wrapped -then finished in a clear coat - or clear coated first - then sold that way to folks like me wanting to build their own gear.  To this day I still have a few of those old un-sanded GatorGlass rod blanks sitting in a corner waiting for someone needing to build really sturdy king mackeral rods... This, for me, was all of fifty years ago now..

Fast forward to current times and I suspect that rod blank makers have much, much more sophisticated manufacturing methods and that painting any rod blank is something they're able to do very quickly and with a high quality result... The drawback for me is that any painted rod blank, particularly over graphite (or "carbon fiber" as it's called now to allow you to charge more....) very quickly will show nicks and abrasions - and for me at least... not possible to re-touch with the correct color when doing a repair (or restoration...).  Once again though, that's just my opinion... Whenever I'm doing a complete restoration of any graphite fly rod - if it's painted - my first step, once the guides have been removed -is to very carefully lightly scrape away all of that painted surface  -then water sand down the remaining rod blank to bring it back to a clean gray graphite surface - before wrapping on new guides.  After the rod is re-wrapped with new guides - and the wraps properly coated with new finish (I use FlexCoat, since I'm only working on saltwater rods..) the remaining smooth sanded graphite rod that's not finished is carefully waxed... Makes for a very nice restoration - but doesn't look at all the way it did from the manufacturer... 

 

[niveker 0]

17 hours ago, BobHRAH said:

almost all

As a fiberglass fan, I think that is a bit of an overstatement, but some of the colors out there are certainly not for me.  But its always good to have options.  I have a first generation Butter Stick, a bright yellow blank with and orange and burgundy wraps.  I love it, more for the feel than the color, but its a very pretty rod.  The newer versions are pretty ugly, IMO.  I'm not really interested in graphite rods, so wouldn't know if there is significantly less colors to chose from.  Do you think there is?

Edited November 27 by niveker
Edit to add: I guess the newer version of the Butter Stick has reverted so a color scheme closer the the original. Its the black blank and color scheme that I didn't care for.

[DFoster 0]

It's been said that flies sold in fly shops are tied more to attract the eye of the fisherman than the fish.  Perhaps it's the same logic with some of the glass rod makers?  They may be pretty to some- but waving a brightly colored stick back and forth near spooky small stream fish probably isn't the best approach to catching them.  My Orvis Superfine is fortunately comes a nice shade of bland green.

[Gene L 0]

I have a couple of Cabela's, in great colors.   Kind of a military green for the CGR, and a dull color for the CGT.  I also have one I tied up a yellow color.  It's a 7.5 Lamiglass 4wt, the only American made glass blank, I think.

Glass is pretty, graphite is largely nowadays dark and performance and feather weight the rule.