A Review of the Fiberglass Flyrodders Web Forum

Although I love to fish all kinds of vintage tackle, I have an affinity for three kinds. The first is a classic Heddon Musky rod with an original Ambassadeur 5000 reel, the second is a 1930s era True Temper casting rod and Shakespeare Marhoff reel, and the last is any vintage fly rod and reel. While I love bamboo, nothing is as sweet to me as my vintage Pflueger 1492 and Fenwick Ferulite glass rod combination. I've fished this set for upwards of 15 years and there is just something about it I love.


Anyway, as I am extremely interested in fishing rod history, I thought I'd profile a web site today that doesn't get as much attention as it deserves from the collecting fraternity. Fiberglass Flyrodders is a "web Forum for fly fishers that enjoy fishing, collecting, building and dealing in vintage and modern fiberglass fly rods." It is a fascinating place to track the lineage of that fiberglass fly rod that most people simply disregard as being too new to have any use or value. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

While the story of the first fiberglass rods has been told and retold a number of times beginning in the late 1940s, I was first introduced to the expanded history of this era's glass rods through Vic Johnson's detailed Fiberglass Fly Rods, a neat history of the origins and development of the glass rod.


Fiberglass Flyrodders adds much to the world of the glass fly rod. It has a great and active forum helping people to ID and evaluate their glass rods (how many times do we see posts on other boards about these things?), and an extremely useful forum on fishing glass rods. Other forums include a for sale/want posting board, fly tying, classic reels (something ORCA members will enjoy), and a nice rodbuilding forum for those looking to rehabilitate, repair, or build their own glass rod.

I love bamboo, don't get me wrong, but there's no reason not to love fiberglass as well. I'm sure there are a few anglers over at
Fiberglass Flyrodders who will agree with me. I'll have a permanent link posted to the direct right for those who want to visit but haven't bookmarked the site.

-- Dr. Todd