I am thinking of getting a 8' # 6 cane fly rod to use for saltwater from a kayak.

Question - would the ideal rod be impregnated og varnished ?

Thanks
Peter

Depends on your personal taste. A varnished rod will hold up to the harsh saltwater environment for some time - many have been sold over the years for use in the salt and these include some well fished boat and pier type rods. If the rod should ever need refinishing, and it may, it can be refinished.

Of course, an impregnated rod may hold up to the environment for a much longer period of time without any need for refinishing.

If you want to get into the pros and cons of how efficient each type rod is then we are back to the problem of not really being able to compare apples to apples. It is only fair to compare the performance of rods with each finish as long as they are of the exact same taper and make. Most of the time they won't be.

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Thanks Tom,

maybe I should specify that I was thinking of this only from a durability point of view. I know of the differences between varnished and impregnated rods.

To take this a step further then - is there an impregnation procedure which can be used on blanks regardles of the glue used (if it is possible to impregnate a glued blank) where you soak the rod in some kind of mixture and that can be done by an amateur ?

Thanks
Peter

There are various ways to do it, but any such procedure actually starts with the heat treating which drives out moisture and resins. You can't put anything in there if there is no room for it to begin with.

The outer enamel of cane also makes it tough to just have anything easily absorbed through there (although it will to some degree). This is probably a question best left to those who have actually done it. Hang on and see who chimes in on this.

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Tell me if I am mistaken, in the south specifically Texas and in Louisana they use cane rods for years called Calcuta rods for Redfish from the shore. Very long surf rods with conventional reels. If you do a search on the web, type (Calcuta fishing rods) you will get a couple of hits. These rods have withstood the temperment of time from saltwater, some rods are over 30 years old. Might be worth it to see how they are built, especially how they are finished.

Not too many of us crazies fish cane rods in saltwater anymore. I fish regular varnished rods in salt, but I make sure the varnish is sound and do some touch ups on wraps or any place that looks suspect. Then wash them off well with fresh water every evening and usually lay them out on a towel in the open over night so they stay nice and dry. Only problem I've had was some minor corrosion with some of the NS and did get some rusting on old plain Perfection bronze guides. Just got an Orvis impregnated 9wt built for salt water, can't wait to try it. Over all, an impregnated rod with saltwater type hardware is probably a lot easier to care for.

Peter,
I know a lot of rodmakers did the impregnating after the rod was glued up. There just doesn't seem to be much information available about what they used and how it was done. One maker soaked the sections in the solution at about a 100 degrees for several hours, and there were/are some sophisticated setups that used vacuum tanks, etc. I'm thinking of trying Gymfloor sealer on a rod some time; leaving the sections in my drying cabinet, which runs at about 90 degrees, till they are warmed all the way through and then swabbing them down with the finish warmed up to maybe lukewarm or slightly better.