A different (?) view on rod-design.

[Thomas]

Thanks Flavio! Yes Theo was his name! And yes it seems a bit absurd, and certainly unconventional, to add weight to the tip, But it also makes me curious.

Cheers Thomas

[Torsten]

Hi,

Theo manufactures these rods for a long time, he has also a Youtube-channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Solitip/videos

(He was a Casting Sport world champion in the 80ies, as far as I know he had for a while the fly distance world record).

The idea of the solid carbon tip rods is not increasing the tip weight but rather to decrease the tip stiffness, to make these rods more sensible - such tips are thinner than conventional fly rod tips.

Thanks,
Torsten

[Thomas]

Hi Torsten,

That's very interesting. Have you tried these rods? If so, what do you think about them? Do you feel a substantial difference between these solid tips and a regular one?

Cheers Thomas

[Paul Arden]

I had to replace a broken tip of a rod when traveling in Malaysia some years back, and the only material I found was a solid carbon tip. Bending curve looked ok but it cast like shit - Paul had cast ot too, I am sure he can't remember

Unbelievable. It seems that so much has happened in my life. Are you sure I was there?

[Torsten]

Hi Thomas,

That's very interesting. Have you tried these rods? If so, what do you think about them? Do you feel a substantial difference between these solid tips and a regular one?

For fishing rods I tried a few rods with solid carbon tips from a friend (but not Theo's). They had a soft tip, this pretty good at short range, e.g. a roll cast with just a short flick of the tip. Theo's father built also rods, mainly for casting sport, also with solid carbon tips. Maybe when I have more time I'd build up one, Theo sells also blanks.

Torsten.

[Merlin]

Hi gents

I have not been looking at the Board for quite a long time, and I am quite surprised to see the old G rods from Scott as a new topic. This series of rods have been produced for some 30 years, a record I’m sure.

When Scott introduced the new G series I did not find the feel I could get from my 854 and 905 which I bought from Harry Wilson. The G2 is closer to the original but their designs are pretty different (I do know the exact and amazing one of the G905 and I can guess the one of the G2 905). And I am still waiting for a modern version of those old G rods.

People at Scott put a lot of emphasis on feel, and this is the quality of the old G rods. G rods were not casting tools for sure, but fishing rods just like the G2 is. I think that the material they used for the old G is part of the answer. Very stiff material is not pleasing to cast, and to take a simple example just consider glass rods for getting more feel.

The extra weight used on the tip of G bass rods thanks to guides is slowing down the rod progressively. The “equivalent mass” is increased intentionally and you can get more inertial effect from the rod which tends to kick forward at the end of the recovery and makes the delivery of the bug slightly stronger. Larry’s explanation goes along with that, the chosen tip was heavier than the original one (#7 instead of #6) for the same purpose. And if someone tried to put mass on the top ferrule of a four piece rod this is also for the same reason.

Bad news about Don Phillips, we discussed by mail a long time ago and I am lucky to have his book with me (for the little story, one can find references of unpublished papers which I wrote for Harry Wilson in the early 80s in the bibliography section of Don’s book).

Merlin

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Merlin, very insightful

Cheers, Paul

[Thomas]

Thanks Merlin.

I have have two 8 weights that are very different from one another in terms of action. The first one is a classic fast-action rod - the tip is relatively soft and the rest of the rod is relatively stiff. The other rod has a much stiffer and heavier tip while the rest of the rod is a bit softer, particularly in the mid-section. I will cast these side by side with big and/or heavy flies this weekend. Interesting!

Cheers Thomas

[ska1911]

Hi!
Theo replaced the broken Tip of my 905 z-axis with a solitip and i prefer it to the original z-axis tip for fishing, especially for close range and leader only presentations. i don't like it that much for long range fishing or carrying line, it just feels a bit too soft for me.
I read somewehere that some companies started to use solid tips for their euro-nymphing rods, does anybody know more about this? Anyhow, this makes sense for me, as in the case of my z-axis the solitip really improved sensitivity and castability of french leaders.
Cheers,
Stefan

[Merlin]

Hi Stefan

Can you measure the mass of your solitip please? Many thanks in advance.

Merlin