Then onward through the years of greenheart rods to the age of
split-cane rods.
Ray, now 62, admits that the experience of having to update all his
split-cane tackle with carbon has been 'like landing on Mars' but he's loving every minute of his reunion with the sport.
Granda went fishing With
split-cane rod, With Uncle Jack For mackerel or cod, In Frenchman's Bay, Or out by the pier, Just as they had done For many a year.
Split-cane rods made by the king of carp anglers, Richard Walker, can fetch pounds 400 to pounds 500 today.
Not that rods have to be constructed from split-cane.
If you own a Young's Ambidex fixed-spool reel and an Allcock's Night Caster
split-cane rod, once hand-made in Redditch, Worcestershire, you're probably in your seventies or a collector of vintage fishing tackle, writes JOHN INGHAM.
Charlton uses his right arm for flexing
split-cane rods and cradling the butts of shotguns; Venables for pouring Chablis into crystal glasses before reaching for his karaoke mike.
The rod was an eight-foot Cummings
split-cane rod and how I fell in love with it.
In the early days of my fishing career I had an assortment of fishing rods - a heavy 'greenheart' which was as brittle as a match stick, hand-down
split-cane rods in various states of disrepair which, in my ignorance, I thought were wonderful but now realise were 'tired' - and had outlived their active life.
The greenheart and
split-cane rods of half a century ago were delightful instruments for casting but were about four times as heavy as the best rods available today.