Old South Bend bamboo fly rod

[jeremymcon]

I was in central PA visiting my fiance's family, and I noticed an old fly rod sitting in a rod rack in her father's garage. I asked him about it, and he said some old guy had given it to him. I didn't know anything about fly fishing, so tried it once (he attached a swivel and was fishing worms from a treble hook!) and then it sat in his garage ever since. He told me I could keep it.

It has an old automatic reel on it - Ward's Sport King is what it says on the back of it. The fly line is old looking - some sort of early plastic line that is very dry rotted, and looks like it isn't even tapered.

I'd like to try to fish it, but I have no idea what weight line belongs on it - it's not written anywhere. Does anybody know anything about the rod or reel that would be helpful or interesting?

Here are some pictures:

 

[Rolf]

Jeremy the "HCH" or "C" usually means a seven weight line. The "47" suggests it is a bass rod. I hope this helps.

 

[dc410]

Jeremy,

Old bamboo rods are always neat to run across. You have a model #47 - 9' South Bend rod which is classified as a steelhead or bass rod. The letters HCH or C represent a rod built to fish a double taper 7 weight line or a level 7 weight line. The automatic reel that is on the rod probably has a level line on it from your description. I don't have any information about the reel other than automatic reels seemed to popular for some reason "back in the day".

 

[gfen]

Model 47 denotes its a "bass taper" rod. It'll be a big, chunky rod that'll weigh a ton and crush your soul when you try and use it.

That said, don't let it ruin your opinion of bamboo rods, even cheap ones.

 

[jeremymcon]

Yea I thought it felt really heavy. I've never even held a bamboo rod, so I wondered at first if that's just how heavy those rods are. That kind of stinks. Lol. Idk when I'd ever use a 7 weight bass rod. The automatic reel is neat. Why did they go out of fashion? Seems really useful. This one still works.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Jeremy,

If the rod is in your possession why not try it out?

Yes it's a 7 weight, and yes it is heavier than a graphite or fiberglass 7 weight but that doesn't mean it is useless. It might be awful or you might enjoy it, but you'll never know until you try.

When I started fly fishing 40 plus years ago the typical trout rod was at least a 5 weight and quite often a 6 weight. Lighter line weights are more of a modern invention.

Yes, there were a few oddball lightweight bamboo and fiberglass rods but for the most part an 8' or 8 1/2" 5 or 6 weight was what the average Joe fishing in the East used. Out West they used 6 or 7 weights.

Try it!

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[sandfly]

if the line is dark brownish it could be an old silk line. I would be interested in it if you want to part with it...

 

[jeremymcon]

sandfly wrote:
if the line is dark brownish it could be an old silk line. I would be interested in it if you want to part with it...

No the line is definitely plastic. It looks a little like one of those plastic coated clotheslines. Clearish red plastic around the whitish core strands. It's cracked at several places too. Not worth anything, I don't think.

 

[sandfly]

well if you decide to toss it, send it to my addy on my website...I'll take it..

 

[shakey]

i'd use the heck out of that rod.

 

[jeremymcon]

I took the rod out yesterday to see how it cast. I put a 7 weight line on it since the line it had was in bad shape. I'm not sure what casting a bamboo rod is supposed to look like, but my loops were pretty wide. I'm thinking maybe the 7 weight line I put on it was a little heavy for the rod.

The rod itself was super heavy! Nothing like casting a graphite rod. I feel like I really had to slow down my casting stroke. Didn't care for the automatic reel much... Kind of a pain to use, and no adjustable drag.

I did catch a 10 inch trout on it. Also hooked another fish, which I'm assuming was a large stocked trout. I was really more focused on the rod when he took, so didn't really get much of a hook set. It ran downstream and then spit the hook. Lol. Oh well.

@sandfly: I'm planning to send you the line. It'll probably take me a while though. Need to find time to get to the post office. I don't know the first thing about the line. Not sure if it's silk or nylon, and even if it was silk I can't see myself taking the time to restore it.

 

[jdaddy]

jeremymcon asked:
The automatic reel is neat. Why did they go out of fashion? Seems really useful. This one still works.

jeremymcon answered himself:
Didn't care for the automatic reel much... Kind of a pain to use, and no adjustable drag.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yes it should cast slow. It's not graphite, and it shouldn't feel like graphite.

 

[jeremymcon]

jdaddy wrote:

jeremymcon asked:
The automatic reel is neat. Why did they go out of fashion? Seems really useful. This one still works.

jeremymcon answered himself:
Didn't care for the automatic reel much... Kind of a pain to use, and no adjustable drag.

Yup. Answered my own question.

 

[gfen]

jeremymcon wrote:
I'm thinking maybe the 7 weight line I put on it was a little heavy for the rod.

Its a South Bend Model 47, their "bass taper" rod. Its a big, heavy affair meant to throw big chunky lures to bass and other large fish. Believe it or not, but people fished for bass back in the '30s and '40s, too, even before Ranger jetboats.

Just because now the only people who use bamboo rods use dainty affairs and cast them to discerning sprung creek trouts doesn't mean that was always the case; at one point bamboo was the standard rod material.

I cannot imagine a 10" trout felt much more exciting than it would
on any other, significantly lighter line weight (and likely as stiff) rod, matter of fact I can't imagine it felt like much of anything or bent the rod at all. It wasn't designed for what you did.

Take it bass fishing, and throw poppers on it, like it was intended to be used.

 

[jeremymcon]

gfen wrote:

jeremymcon wrote:
I'm thinking maybe the 7 weight line I put on it was a little heavy for the rod.

Its a South Bend Model 47, their "bass taper" rod. Its a big, heavy affair meant to throw big chunky lures to bass and other large fish. Believe it or not, but people fished for bass back in the '30s and '40s, too, even before Ranger jetboats.

Just because now the only people who use bamboo rods use dainty affairs and cast them to discerning sprung creek trouts doesn't mean that was always the case; at one point bamboo was the standard rod material.

I cannot imagine a 10" trout felt much more exciting than it would
on any other, significantly lighter line weight (and likely as stiff) rod, matter of fact I can't imagine it felt like much of anything or bent the rod at all. It wasn't designed for what you did.

Take it bass fishing, and throw poppers on it, like it was intended to be used.

Yea I do need to go find some bass. I don't have much experience with bass though, and am really not sure of a good spot, so first tried fishing a streamer on a farm pond, then went to the trout stream next to the farm pond and caught a trout.

The reason I was thinking it maybe needed a 6 weight line instead of 7 is that it felt like the rod had trouble casting the heavy line. Of course I don't really know what casting a 7 weight bamboo rod should feel like, so that was just a thought.

 

[Gone4Day]

I don't know if this is a South Bend but it looks similar. The widow next door gave it to my dad when he was going to trade school after WWII. He didn't know how to use it but I taught myself with it 20 years later. Maybe I should take it fishing for old times sake. Kind of like deer hunting with a muzzle loader! 😎

 

[The_Sasquatch]

jeremymcon wrote:

gfen wrote:

jeremymcon wrote:
I'm thinking maybe the 7 weight line I put on it was a little heavy for the rod.

Its a South Bend Model 47, their "bass taper" rod. Its a big, heavy affair meant to throw big chunky lures to bass and other large fish. Believe it or not, but people fished for bass back in the '30s and '40s, too, even before Ranger jetboats.

Just because now the only people who use bamboo rods use dainty affairs and cast them to discerning sprung creek trouts doesn't mean that was always the case; at one point bamboo was the standard rod material.

I cannot imagine a 10" trout felt much more exciting than it would
on any other, significantly lighter line weight (and likely as stiff) rod, matter of fact I can't imagine it felt like much of anything or bent the rod at all. It wasn't designed for what you did.

Take it bass fishing, and throw poppers on it, like it was intended to be used.

Yea I do need to go find some bass. I don't have much experience with bass though, and am really not sure of a good spot, so first tried fishing a streamer on a farm pond, then went to the trout stream next to the farm pond and caught a trout.

The reason I was thinking it maybe needed a 6 weight line instead of 7 is that it felt like the rod had trouble casting the heavy line. Of course I don't really know what casting a 7 weight bamboo rod should feel like, so that was just a thought.

It should feel slow. Seriously.

You live in East Pete. You are surrounded by good bass water. Pick a spot, any spot, on the Conestoga or Cocalico.

 

[barbless]

Gone4Day, that rod is a late model Horrocks-Ibbotson Majestic.

Montague, H-I. and South Bend were the largest American rod manufacturers in the bamboo era.

It's probably a 6-7 weight rod, in the middle of the H-I lineup in terms of quality.

Go on, try it out. It will be, um, heavy- 5 1/2-6 oz. And you'll need to slow down your casting speed- feel the rod working and wait for the line to bend it on the backcast, which will take around a "one-one thousand" to happen. You may want to try a size heavier line, too. But many of the 9' rods are just not very good- either soggy or broomsticks.

If the ferrules click when it's wiggled and waved, the ferrule glue is dry and the rod may snap. Quick fix- re-melt the glue by heating the metal ferrules with a lighter. Better fix- pull the ferrules, clean the old glue, epoxy them back on. They aren't serrated under the thread, which means you don't need to rewrap them for the rod to work fine.

Most of the H-I rods don't have a great reputation-EXCEPT for the two-piece shorties: the Tonka Prince, Princess and Tonka Queen. All of those rods have a nice crisp action- not by any means "fast" in the graphite sense, but nice sweet casting rods that are lots of fun to catch fish with.

 

[JackM]

Tonka is a toy truck; Tonkin is the region of SE Asia where the "best" bamboo grows.