Jump to content

Failed with the mullet ,but!


Recommended Posts

I had to pop down to the coast to see my brother this evening and as an afterthough took a rod in the hope of grabbing an hour's mullet fishing. Unfortunatly it was obvious that I either I was too inept to tempt one or had left it a bit late in the season and they were no longer in the river. Bread certainly had no pulling power so I tried a bunch of maggots.                                     

            I had one bite that produced a suicidal 2 inch bass and one other that resulted in this!

20190917_194215.jpg.a05f33b99a6bf2e1d41c2275cacc6374.jpg

 

Edited by comanche
  • Like 12
Link to post

I would love a rod like that. What is the top section made of:- lance wood? It is very difficult to find good examples that still have a usable tip.

Know what you mean about not having much line on the centrepin to avoid it digging in. I landed two small barbel using conventional tackle so to give them a chance I decided to swap to a much lighter rod with a Speedia loaded with 6lb line and a 4lb hook link. Next fish was an 18lb carp and at one point I only had five turns of line left on the reel ?

  • Like 1
Link to post

The tip is greenheart and when I got it the rod was missing several rings  and a couple of inches off the end . It's old but not a collector's piece so I've no guilt about lashing some mismatched eyes on and  abusing it.

The only decent split cane rod I have is an Allcock's Record Breaker, given to me by Tyla on this forum. It's reserved for posh use.The couple of whole cane rods I have are far more work-a-day and have a more "organic" feel to them. 

I know old greenheart has a reputation for cracking but this could be due to the age and huge number of rods that were made.  How many old split cane rods are about with shortened tip sections due to breakage ? Yet no one dare complain about split cane being inherently flawed.

I have a whole rod made from it and two with greenheart tips. None of them cost me anything so if they break in action so be it. 

Looking on the Bay of Evil whole cane/greenheart rods often sell for less than the postage price. Almost worth the risk if you just want a user,rather than collectable rod.

Edited by comanche
  • Like 1
Link to post

The old stuff that I come across out here in the brocantes and on the vide greniers are absolute junk. I suppose that it is due to this being a relatively poor area and things like fishing tackle and photographic items are at the lower end of the price range when purchased new.

I cut down a lot of my old stuff before moving out here. I have kept a Chapmans 500 split cane rod that is 10 feet and around 1lb test curve. I had that completely refurbished just before we moved. I've also got a 9' split cane fly rod of around #6 weight that is in good order and also a real beast of a rod in an 8' double built split cane rod with a steel core. It seems from the name  to have possibly been built for salmon fishing, but is far heavier than necessary and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't actually designed for mahseer. I got it specifically to use for catfish. One day I will get around to re-ringing it and putting it to use. It would be nice to pair it up with a large old wooden Nottingham, an Alcocks Levithian or if I could afford it; a 5" Hardy Silex (Dream on Clive)

I have a few vintage French floats, the type that you stop the line with a cocktail stick or similar that came with an old French seat box I got in the spring at a vide grenier. I fancy some of these to 'dress' the upper  compartment of the seat box....   https://www.ateliers-marinette.fr/fr/stocks-vintage/enrouleur-bois-peche-1930.html

 

  • Like 1
Link to post

I'm trying to be sensible now. I need no more rods ...but if someone had a RW Mk4 heading for a skip ???. I've  actually sorted out my favourite stuff for keeping and priced a box of old reels ready for a boot sale. I look on The Bay of Temptation at some of the gorgeous shiny things like, Adcock Stantons,Hardy Do Dahs,and stuff by Gary Mills, but it would be wasted on me. If I had a Roach Perfection reel and Barder rod I would still grab the Flick-em with missing spokes and either one of my ratty whole cane rods(hum,now do I go for the one with the tip that dresses to the right or the one with visible Araldite on the handle) ,or the split cane fly rod with a broken tip that has been ,with the addition of a handle extension ,recycled into a very bendy float rod?

Catfish on a cane rod and big centre-pin sounds like a super "bucket list" idea.  A much overlooked big reel is the  Harrington Maxima. Probably the reason it's overlooked  is that most of the stuff made  by    Harrington was pretty naff( the Omnia drum reel,Gat Air pistol etc) but Maximas  dirt  are cheap       .

I have one and it is a proper centrepin .For  a Harrington product it's pretty good?      20190919_174535.jpg.f44cd8b83ef6cc68e6529f1915234c5a.jpg          

 

  • Like 2
Link to post

I had one of those ?

At one time you could pick up centrepins for a quid or less on the flea markets. Then they became popular and more expensive. The Maxima if I remember correctly was about 7" diameter and came with cork inserts to reduce the capacity. It weighed a ton, but was probably one of two the smoothest running of the old 'pins that I owned. The other surprisingly being a Bakelite reel with brass fittings made by ELO, a Bradford company. It had an adjustable screw that allowed me to use it for ledgering on rivers without using the noisy ratchet. I had abut twenty old reels at one time, all usable. Then when we were preparing to come out here I had a cull and only kept the ones I intended to use over here.

I brought a Match Aerial, an Adcocks Stanton >1984 un-braked model, a Trudex, and  have since picked up a WR Speedia wide drum and also a Mordex which was a reel I used for piking when I was a lad not being able to justify or afford a Jecta which I really wanted.

Link to post

Not quite 7" ,but at first glance a bit of a monster!  Yet ,as you say ,the Maxima spins and spins. Interestingly my Maxima weighs the same as my G&Y Avon Supreme . Which is a smaller reel and also from the same stable as the Jecta you lusted after.

My first reel was an ELO. Not ,unfortunatly ,a model witj features like yours.  Mine was a black plastic drum about 2 and a half inches across. Clearly a base-model?

  • Like 1
Link to post

I still hanker after a Jecta. A friend of my wife who lives over here inherited a mint one from her Dad along with a mint Mitchell 308 Prince and a Hardy fly rod and reel worth over £500. I would have bought the old reels but she wanted to keep them.

I have dug out that old cane rod today. It is a Marco and the but is endorsed "Silver Monarch" and also has written on it "Elasticane Double Built Butt" and "Steel Core" and it is 10 foot in two sections with heavy duty ferrule and screw reel fitting. There isn't much information about it on the web but I reckon it was built for dead bait fishing for salmon from boats. It would easily double as a mahseer rod or in my case wels catfish. It is too heavy to use for lure fishing but float fishing dead baits from my boat will be right up its street. 

I had forgotten what it needed to bring it back to usable condition. I had already glued the tip ring on with epoxy so the obvious place to start was to whip that ring on. The original whippings might have been very dark green although it looks black under the varnish. I had some black floss in my fly-tying box so I used that and then coated the threads with a super glue gel and then a good coat of epoxy resin. Another ring was losing its lower whipping so I stripped that off and re-used the original whipping to re-seat it. All the rings were a bit loose so it was either re-whip them all or coat the original varnished whippings with epoxy. I chose plan B. They are now all secure. There had been checked first to make sure that they worth saving.

I am short of some gloss varnish so tomorrow I will gently rub down the old varnish with fine wire wool and then once I get out and about, re-varnish the whole rod. All I need then is a suitable reel. Something like an old Allcocks Leviathan or Alvey Snapper Bakelite reel. Something with  a brake as they don't half motor. I still have a burn scar from when I tried to stop a 6 foot cat by thumbing the spool of my Speedia ?

Link to post

I had a Modern Arms Company .410. Their clever use of the Marco trade name gave their fishing tackle a sophisticated continental feel.

       I would've gone down exactly the same route as you with the rod. Stuff an expensive restoration; epoxy the whippings and get it in use?

Out of interest the Marco Silver Monarch is possibly an up-market sea rod. I only write this because I found a rod called a Marco Silver King described as such on the interweb. And we all know everything on the Devil's Playground of the internet is gospel? Reel.....Well I just looked at my G&Y Avon ; a biggish reel but the adjustable drag is quite puny even on maximum.  Hopefully a G&Y Jecta or Sea Jecta would have a firmer setting.. Alvey? Yes ,probably contemporary with the rod , has a star drag and importantly not expensive. 

Edited by comanche
Link to post

Marco must have been pretty confident in their logo as they did not include their name on any of their rods. Just the cartoon of the bloke fishing. I hadn't heard of the 'Silver King' rod. Many were named after rivers such as 'Trent' and there were other random names such as 'Lyca' and also  'Nymph' which surprisingly was on a coarse rod, not a fly rod. They rode Walker's carp fishing boom naming several rods 'Carp'. Trolling the net though comes up with this link to a 'Silver King' rod that is identical spec' to the 'silver Monarch' rod that  I have if it is steel lined as described on the advert. It isn't written on the rod like on mine:  https://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/lot-720828-2x_marco_split_cane_sea_boat_rods_good.html

The two rods in the lot listed above went for £40 and the 'Silver Monarch' was unused. I reckon I was diddled at a tenner that I paid for mine ?

I understand that the company was originally London based and moved to Bromley where they introduced the first planing machine for split cane rod making. They seem to be most famous for their trade brand Elasticane. They also made whole cane and green heart rods in the early days and fibreglass rods towards the end. They went out of business around the 1970's.

I want a reel of the same vintage as the rod: 1950's - 60's. There are a few Australian Alvey Snapper reels on the Bay of Fleas. These have a star drag and slipping clutch like the Okuma Trent reels I already have. The Allcocks Leviathan has a lever that you use to apply braking pressure to the drum. For catfish either of those will be more suitable than trying to stop the fish using thumb pressure as I have found out. I can also get a nice unused Alvey for £30 shipped from a freeads site located here in France so that is probably the way I'll be going.

Another two weeks of recuperation and I'll be cleared to push the boat out (from off my trailer) ?

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to post

Ooh,hopefully there will be reports of cane-tamed catfish coming soon?

One unfortunate effect of you talking about your Silver Monarch was that I googled it. There is one on the Evil Bay at £30 plus postage ,so yours was a bargain at a tenner!

That's not the unfortunate bit though. As I was cruising the tempting waters of the bay I spotted a badly described (the charity shop "think" it is a sea rod)split c ane rod for a collection only, buy it now of only £5.99. Having said I need no more tackle I justified it as being ideal for piking from my canoe???. Not only that but a friend lives only a couple of miles from the rod and can pick it up. If it's any good I'll put a picture up. If it is dud ,I'll just keep quiet.?

I blame you?......

Edited by comanche
  • Haha 1
Link to post

Slippery slope old chap. Slippery slope........ ?

I put the 'Silver Monarch' through its paces today. After polishing the rings using a Dremmel type tool and Brasso I attached the Okuma Trent centrepin reel I use for catfish and tied the 80lb braid line to a set of scales that were hooked up to a dustbin. I got to a 4lb lift before I chickened out. I reckon the rod would be 4.5lb or possibly 5lb test curve, about the same as my usual catfish rod a 9 foot Ugly Stick Uptider. All the stars are aligning. I can see it all now; 'Caning the Cats' article in the Traditional Fisherman magazine. Chris Yates designing a catfish float out of a pig's bladder and the price of Marco rods quadrupling overnight.

Failing that I could always use it as a spod rod ?

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
On 21/09/2019 at 12:19, Nicepix said:

Slippery slope old chap. Slippery slope........ ?

I put the 'Silver Monarch' through its paces today. After polishing the rings using a Dremmel type tool and Brasso I attached the Okuma Trent centrepin reel I use for catfish and tied the 80lb braid line to a set of scales that were hooked up to a dustbin. I got to a 4lb lift before I chickened out. I reckon the rod would be 4.5lb or possibly 5lb test curve, about the same as my usual catfish rod a 9 foot Ugly Stick Uptider. All the stars are aligning. I can see it all now; 'Caning the Cats' article in the Traditional Fisherman magazine. Chris Yates designing a catfish float out of a pig's bladder and the price of Marco rods quadrupling overnight.

Failing that I could always use it as a spod rod ?

Well ,a slippery slope indeed, but this one led , in the manner of a rainbow, to a crock of gold. Ok it led to a lovely cane rod of mysterious provenance.

Nominally a "Capella", a name associated  with your Marco brand Catfish Rodeo Rod , it resembles none of the brand's usual models and has no logo. In fact it has so many intermediate whippings there is no room for a logo!

I don't know if it is an early Marco, the result of some custom building  or a classy repair job by a previous owner, or indeed something else. 

All I know is that thanks to your casual mentioning of your Silver Monarch ,Nicepix; I am now the owner of this beasty.  

20190923_184808.jpg.dcca65972be1932e4fdff7eab2eb1729.jpg

RWB over "CAPELLA". Beneath that, a very faint 1954.

20190923_131434_resized.jpg.7d1f545c06a1ab5f2abe8376001be77a.jpg

For some reason the 1954 digits were covered with a dab of pink nail varnish. I'm guessing from this that the rod once belonged to someone who fished from a "bivvy"?

20190923_132025_resized.jpg.ca10f970e0a77fc8c5a461019a28a418.jpg

Anyway  the rod is 9' long with a lovely power curve. And it cost less than six quid plus a fiver's worth of petrol to collect.

Nice one Nicepix ?? . With any luck, Chris Yates will have to design not just a single pig bladder float but a series of linked pig's bladders to deal with the leviathons that are fated to pay homage to the power of your Marco Monarch.

 

 

Edited by comanche
  • Haha 1
Link to post

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...