Evolution & revolution
The materials have changed and the choice of beach rods is massive, ranging from off-the-shelf to custom-made objects of desire. What will suit you? Does it matter?
Rods are now so good that
it makes little difference to me what I use. The only rod I still lust to own is a Winston surf rod made by the legendary Lew Stoner of San Francisco. Winston rods were made of internally fluted hollow built cane. This radical engineering was made possible by the aircraft industry glue that kept the cane segments from exploding apart on a big cast. I had the privilege of being allowed a few casts with a 1955 Winston 9ft tip married to a 40in hickory handle. It was the most beautiful rod I have ever cast, with an exemplary sweetness and turbo-like recovery. In their heyday, such rods had cast more than 800 feet.
Be it of cane, glass or carbon, a hollow rod reduces weight and boosts performance. A tube with a slow taper bends fairly evenly throughout to give a parabolic or even a reversed action. Fast-taper blends a slim tip to progressively stiffer mid and bottom areas. A fast action is generally better for UK beach fishing because it gives smooth control, excellent bite detection and the guts to transfer heavy casting force without caving in.
MaJoR WeakneSS
Early glass rods were rich in adhesive resins but relatively sparse in glass fibres. This ‘wet’ mix was essential because the resins were not capable of binding as much glass as rod makers would have liked for speed and stiffness.
Better resin systems made possible a drier, glass-rich mix. Rods quickly became lighter, faster, more sensitive and more reliable. But one problem remained for years: lack of the bottom-end stiffness necessary to drive big casts. Just as hickory provided the low-down stiffness to extract maximum performance from Winston rods, high-tensile aluminium alloy tubes gave glass blanks the handles stiff enough to cope with big pendulum and off-ground methods.
One major weakness plagued casters and anglers alike: the poor mid and lower zone performance of the blank itself. So far, the only way to achieve sufficient stiffness and strength was with large-diameter tubes with thick walls, which, in the context of long-range fishing with 6oz of lead weight, translated into low efficiency plus a heavy and dead-feeling rod. Plug in a handle of meaty aluminium tube, and you had a real handful.
Glass steadily evolved, though some of the advanced specifications were not available in the UK due to military restrictions. American surf rods with S-glass were way ahead, but, unfortunately, US ideas on rod design were light years away from ours.
cReatiVe caRBon
It was not until carbon fibre came to rod making from the aerospace world that UK fishing and tournament rods really came into their own. Yet again, though, adhesives were the bugbear.
Early carbon fibres were embedded in a resin matrix unable to cope unless the tube stayed almost rigid. Even then there were problems – but the new materials did allow rod makers to stiffen the middle and lower parts of the rod tube, and at the same time reduce the rod’s overall diameter.
Known as semi-carbons, these blanks were a giant step forward. Laminating carbon over the butt’s aluminium tube produced slimmer and more durable handles that mere mortals could wrap their fingers around.
As ever, beach rods derived their tip speed via a fast taper tube. But as new and better carbon fibre materials and resins arrived, the options expanded. Better materials meant you could use carbon fibre throughout the rod’s length without risking catastrophe; let it bend, in other words. Modern rods can be lightning-quick even if the blank taper is slow. Handles no longer need to be fat. Rod length, stiffness, action and recovery speed are balanced to deliver excellent results whether you prefer UK or Continental-style fishing.
All this is possible not just because the
fibres are better, but because adhesives and production methods allow them to be laid lengthwise along the blank, wrapped around its circumference or even set in spirals.
Higher performance rods are often a mixture of all these. The latest rod materials incorporate glass and other synthetic fibres alongside high-modulus, high-tensile and other exotic carbons. Today’s designer can make a rod dance to any tune he chooses.
A REAPPRAISAL
The result is the massive range of rods we see today. Light, slim, durable. A huge range of actions, speeds and stiffness to suit every beach application from featherweight lure fishing to blasting monster lead weights and whole fish baits. Prices to suit every pocket. From that point of view, it is hard to see where rod design can go from here.
One upshot of all this readily available technology is that even cheap rods perform better than we could have imagined a few years ago. This already calls for a reappraisal of exactly what we want and need in a beachfishing rod. Once only a few specialist companies made a decent beach rod, but now the world and his dog do a pretty good job.
On the technical side there are big differences between materials and engineering techniques. In that respect it is easy to show that some rods are superior to others. But beware: comparisons between rods and their makers are all very interesting to the student of rod design and to followers of fashion, but for practical beach fishing it is another matter. Here it pays to judge rods, not one to another, but against your own skills and fishing needs.
THE FINISHED PRODUCT
In everyday use, most rods are more than good enough. One reason is that the most popular and user-friendly designs are generic – basic
“It pays to judge rods, not one to another, but against your own skills and fishing needs”
materials are more than adequate. Fairly simple manufacturing methods produce an excellent product.
Match the rings, whippings, finish and handle fittings to both the blank and the type of fishing at which it is aimed, and you end up with a workmanlike beach tool.
Accurate ringing guides the line so that the blank works as it should both for casting and fishing. Ringing is not rocket science or a matter of millimetre accuracy in either ring choice and numbers, or in spacing. There is a lot of leeway, especially if you like building your own rods. It is rare to find a poorly ringed production rod except at the lowest budget end of the market.
One caveat is that not all rings are created equal… and the trade is plagued by fakes. In general, though, even cheap rings hang together long enough to give decent value. Some high-grade rings are fairly delicate by nature anyway, which is a point to consider before investing in them.
Something less sophisticated but more durable might be a wise option, and this is what most rod makers go for.
All a handle needs to be is stiff enough, long enough and of a diameter that suits you. A beach angler must be able to take a secure, non-slip grip even in the wet and cold. But again, from the performance side it doesn’t matter much whether a rod sports shrink wrap, foam or even good old cork.
It’s the same with reel fittings. A reel needs to be in the right place, secure and easy to control. Most options, from simple coasters to graphite sliding seats, boil down to personal preference, and they all do a good job.
MASS MARKET OR CUSTOM?
On one level, a rod is just a tool to do a job. On another, it is a dream possession and a status symbol. Whereas owning an Aston Martin or suchlike is the stuff of pure fantasy for most of us, the best rods in the world still lie within reach of fishermen keen on their sport and prepared to splash the cash. That is one reason custom rod makers are always busy.
A rod blank manufactured by a top-ranked company, then built and finished to custom standards, is a thing of precision, beauty and joy to an owner who is that way inclined.
The materials and engineering are wonderful, though as I have already mentioned this won’t necessarily hold any advantage for the average angler. The best of anglers and tournament casters might gain an edge, not least because one-off rods can be built to their exact specifications.
A genuine custom build combines the best of fittings and finish with whatever modifications the new owner might request, such as length, fancy whippings and labelling.
As a rule, such a rod will last longer than something less expensive, and it justifies being rebuilt or tidied up as required. Whether the rod casts and fishes any better than an off-the-shelf beach rod is a question every angler must answer for himself. ■
“On one level, a rod is just a tool to do a job. On another, it is a dream possession and a status symbol”