In rod building terms not useage terms:

When and who made the first "graphite" blanks?

How were they first accepted?
Some regions / people see graphite as a "standard item" while other see them as "special item" for the fishing kit?

Have they changed our craft at all?

fenwick? mass produced rod.

Graphite has infiltraed many areas, golf shafts for instance. There used to be Boron type rods but someone who knows more about graphite production through the ages will have to chime in.

I think Jimmy Green ushered in the first production graphite rods and blanks with the Fenwich HMG series sometime in the early 1970's. There were a lot of makers who jumped into the graphite rod market about the same time, however.

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Kennedy-Fisher was one of the first but their marketing was not very good. Their products were superior to Fenwick but they just weren't good salesmen.

In the mid. 70's when graphite hit the main stream market they were thick and heavy and broke easily.
Good Wraps Bob

Jimmy Green and Don Green (Grizzly, Fenwick and later Sage) were the first in 1973-74, followed by Dick Kantner at GUSA, and Joe Fisher at J. Kennedy Fisher. As for the breakage problem that was not because of the use of carbon, it was a flawed design that lacked sufficient hoop strength. You can read about any and all of this in the interview I did with Jimmy Green in RodMaker a few years back.

He was a really cool guy.

Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing

Mike McManus acquired his fiberglass skill working on RAF planes during WWII. He later worked with Terry Carroll building fishing poles. They later separated (remaining friends) to form their own companies. Mike forming Cono-flex and Terry forming Zziplex. I believe it was 1971 that Mike McManus originated the flip tip blank. This is the tip that has about the botton 2/3 being carbon fiber with glass and the top 1/3 strictly glass.

The following is from Terry Carroll's website (Zziplex):

The company was founded in the spring of 1980 to capitalise on the Casting experience of Terry Carroll who had broken the British Casting Record several times during the late sixties and seventies.

Terry Carroll was also involved in the very early developments of Carbon fibre for fishing rod use in the late 60's.
When one considers his well documented success as a Surf Angler with the huge bags of cod taken in the 60's and 70's plus the connection with the carbon fibre, development of Zziplex rods was a natural conclusion.

Don't forget SKYLINE graphite rods in the mid 70's!

Didn't forget them, nor some others. Gene Bullard discusses them and others in his upcoming article in RodMaker next month.

We often forget that rod blank manufacturing takes place in other places around the world as well. For all I know Jimmy and Don Green were simply the first U.S. makers to produce a commercially made carbon fiber rod blank. Somebody else might have been first if we look at the scenario world-wide.

But Jimmy and Don certainly did make what was regarded as one of the very best early graphite rod blanks - the HMG. Still a good many of them are out there and in use.

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