I was wondering if anyone could help me with a 'history lesson' on an old surf rod. My dad has a 2-piece surf rod that he wants me to re-condition/restore. The rod is 9' long, has a butt diameter of .763" (19.38mm) and the tip = 9. It's a fiberglass blank with a dark candy apple/burgandy color painted over silver primer. It had 5 wire frame guides and a red aluminum reel seat w/ black hoods. He paid $37 at a hardware store in 1959-1960-ish for the combo with a Zebco spinning reel. There's no writing, or markings that I can see, and the paint is flaking off. Does anyone have any thoughts or possible info on this rod? I thought it would be neat to track down some kind of history on the rod. Any suggestions for do's or don'ts before I start to work on this rod?

Thanks,
Chris

All I can tell you I referb and fish old rods with great results. So strip the eyes off, refinish the wooden handle if it has one, shine up the old metal reel seat and fish it. They tend to be slower then today's rods, fiberglass, under warps and a metal ferrule, will do that, but they really fish soft baits well. I just came home from the Gulf after catching 3 pompano on an old Garcia and an old Eagle Claw rod. They tend to cast the sand fleas better then the faster rods that I reserve to cast spoons to bluefish.
Replacing the SS eyes with modern eyes is up to you. I use the SS eyes and under wrap to keep the look and don't have any problem with braid.
Enjoy.
John

The color is indicative of an old Berkley Cherrywood rod, but I don't think they came on the market until the mid to late 1960's.

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