I have been asked to refurbish some antique glass rods. I have one in particular that I'm not sure what to do with. There is a cork handle as one would expect, but there is
no reel seat at all. It is definitely a spinning rod, however. Does anyone know how the reel was attached? I don't think it was intended for a Tennessee handle. The only marking on the rod said "North Lakes". Is anyone familiar with this rod? I would appreciate any info any of you may have! Thank you in advance!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2010 07:34PM by Brian Avery.

Brain, the first custom rod that I bought when I was a teen was built like that, No Reel Seat. The rod came with two alum. rings about 3/4 of an inch wide and they slid down over the reel. I think I have seen some in Mudholes catalog.

Fire Warrior Custom Rods

And the first spinning rod I owned (at age 4 or 5) had no reel seat and no rings. The reel was taped to the cork.

Brian,
Spinning or Spin fishing originated in Europe. In England it was called "thread-line" fishing. The original spinning rods, which were imported from Europe in the early 1900s, had a long grip of about 18 inches or so. The reel typically was attached with a set of slip rings about an inch wide. The idea was that you could move the location of the reel to suit your needs. You could even attach a fly reel at the butt of the grip for fly fishing.

Without knowing the manufacturer or the age, I doubt you can restore it accurately. You can, however, rebuild it to resemble those rods. Some of the sponsors on the left may carry slip rings to be used for holding the reel on. If this is an old spinning rod, the guides are probably quite large and were distributed according to the "Cone of Flight" method. You could decide to use the NGC and make a bit more efficient rod. Have fun.

Mike Blomme

You can get slip rings. many on the left sell them for Tennessee handles

If it used slip rings - where did they go. Most handles with them I would think had a larger end on the handle to keep them from falling off ?? Sounds like it used tape

Maybe a Google Search will bring up more info.

Bill - willierods.com

Brian,
Is the handle perhaps missing its butt cap? Horrocks-Ibbotson, among others, often used oversized plastic butt caps and fore-end caps to hold the rings on a straight Tennessee style grip instead of using flared grip ends, especially on their lower end rods. Your rod almost certainly used aluminum slip rings, either raw metal or, more probably, anodized in one of several colors to match the wraps.

Thanks for all the input! I believe I will install rings. The butt cap is gone, so the rings probably slipped off ages ago. The only info I have on the rod is a stamped label that says "North Lakes". I posted a picture on the misc. photo gallery, if any of you would like to look. Mr. Kirkman commented on it and he believes as you do, that it was a Tennessee type handle with slip rings.