I came across a site selling rods built on hex shaped blanks: [www.coltrods.com] I'm skeptical by nature, but what do you all make of this?

There are a couple of manufacturers that have been selling hex shaped blanks for many years. They have their place in the fishing world due to some unique characteristics.

Roger

Looks like the old Hexilon blanks. I was told that the rods used in "A River runs through it", were made by Hexilon, and were graphite rods instead of bamboo.

Mike Bradfrod
R.M.B. Fishing Rods
Nampa, Idaho

My Grandfather had a steel telescoping fly rod that was hex shaped, but I didn't know anyone still manufactured rods in this shape. This company claims better sensitivity, casting accuracy, deadlift and durability all due to the shape and the fibers laying straight as opposed to wrapped on a mandrel. How much of these claims do you think is "Fluff"?

Ah I loved that picture. And they did not use Bamboo What a let down !!!

Bill - willierods.com

Most all are fluff, unfortunately. I built on the first two single piece fly rod prototypes that HexTek ever built. They went to Billy Pate for some tarpon fishing. The main claim for the design was extreme durability. Raford Trask, who operated the company, used to say that you could continue fishing one of their rods even if you were to cut it halfway through.

But, that extra durability comes at a price. A tube offers the most stiffness for the weight, so with this design you may indeed have a very powerful and durable blank, but at greater weight than if the same characteristics were built into a tubular rod. Therefore less sensitivity and slower response and recovery.

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That Colt site seems to be picking up where Cape Fear left off. Cape Fear Rods came on about 8-10 years ago and never really took off. Maybe Colt has made improvements???

i was wrong on the name of the rod blank. I called it Hexilon. It is actually Hexagraph. "rod builder extraordinaire Walton Powell created the revolutionary Hexagraph fly-rod. Featured exclusively in the film version of A River Runs Through it, all Hexagraph rods duplicate the appearance and actions of fine, custom-built, split-cane fly rods, assembled by gluing six tapered sections together to form a solid rod-blank with the distinctive hexagonal cross-section of traditional split-cane fly rods."

Mike Bradfrod
R.M.B. Fishing Rods
Nampa, Idaho

These aren't Hexagraph rods - at least not the ones that were built by Cape Fear. Those featured an internal T-beam construction used in commercial building structures in Australia.

I may be wrong, but I think the Hexagraph rods designed by Walton Powell were solid.

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I don't agree with the straight fiber lay. If you look at the way MOST round blanks are made the taper of the cut cloth and the way they are tacked to the mandral the fibers run the length and not around the blank. of course there are exceptions in layups where fibers are layed at an angle!! Some companys use the spiral/ weave method but IMO these blanks have their short comings as well and these blanks don't have the fibers running the length but at an angle.

The rods used in the movie "A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT" were indeed bamboo rods.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the fellow who was responsible for maintaining all the rods during the production.

He told me most were rather mundane rods... I think he said they were Heddons.

I had been previously been told they were Bob Taylor rods but this fellow set the record straight.

Unfortunately I didn't get his name but I will try to find out.

I met him during a bamboo casting session in Livingston Manor, NY on Saturday.

It was part of the opening day festivities of Trout Season at Roscoe, NY that morning.

About two dozen fly fishermen brought all their bamboo rods to the gym of the local high school where we all had a chance to test cast them.

My favorites were two Payne rods.. a 7'- 4 wt and a 7'6" - 4 wt. Both were in pristine original condition. Easily the finest bamboo rods I have ever had the pleasure of casting.

Heddon made extremely high end bamboo rods considering the quantities they were built in. And, they also had a "handmade" shop where a single person made a rod from start to finish. I believe these were everything from the model 20 and up.

Because of the quantity of bamboo they bought, they were able to source extremely good raw material. Of all the so called "production" bamboo rods, Heddon's are considered among the very best. While all used similar bamboo, the models 17 (Black Beauty) and up had better fittings than the models below that number.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure that the rods used in the movie were Hexagraph, solid graphites painted to appear as bamboo. It would be interesting to know more about the fellow you met this past weekend.

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Tom,
I read somewhere that what E.C. Powell did was to hollow out the individual strips of cane that were glued together thus leaving a hole down the center of the split bamboo rod. His reasoning, I heard, was that these fibers were not load bearing and by removing them the rod was much lighter. I'm not sure what Walt was doing since I encountered the Powell rod when he was making fiberglass and graphite rods. One of his marketing ploys was to indicate his rods could cast any fly line from #3 to #6 weight. He was correct as we know from Dr. Hanneman's work as well as common sense,but I think marketing was the main reason.

Mike Blomme

That's correct. E.C. built the first hollow bamboo rods. The interior fibers don't really add anything other than weight - it's the outer fibers that carry the load. I believe his rods won some of the early casting contests.

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I saw, what was reported at the time, to be the 8 1/2 ft Grainger used by Tom Skeritt . I was told Bob Taylor at Thomas & Thomas refurbished the rod for the movie.

That very well may be the case.

I have a suspicion that the rods carried by the actors might have been genuine bamboo, while the double doing the casting was using a Hexagraph.

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Spencer Phipps Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw, what was reported at the time, to be the 8
> 1/2 ft Grainger used by Tom Skeritt . I was told
> Bob Taylor at Thomas & Thomas refurbished the rod
> for the movie.

True - it was sold at @#$%& and documented by the film's "sourcer" and director


Posted by: Tom Kirkman (Moderator)
Date: April 06, 2011 12:07PM
I have a suspicion that the rods carried by the actors might have been genuine bamboo, while the double doing the casting was using a Hexagraph.

Also true - all the "shadow casting" was done with bamboo look-alike. Which is the reason some people noted 'non-authentic' reel seat and fittings on the "double's" rod.

Sorry for high jacking this subject. Tom, the Hexagraph blank does appear to be made from a flat piece of graphite with a foam core backing, and is then cut, and tappered just like bamboo. The blank does appear to be solid. I contacted the Hexagraph company, about some of the comments on this thread. I received this reply:

"First off, the movie "A River Runs Through It" was made just before I bought the Hexagraph company from Walton Powell. Indeed Walton had made a deal with the film and indeed Hexagraph rods were used in a good bit of the movie (I can recognize which ones are they in the film). To a degree the submission that said actual bamboo rods were used in the close ups and Hexgraphs used for the casting was, at least as I understand it, pretty close to correct. Both types of rods were used in the movie and there was a strong effort to get everything to correctly reflect the period of the movie (late 1920's). A man named John Deitsch was the technical advisor for the movie and Jason Borger did most of the casting. Both of those folks are still active in the industry and could provide more details.
Deitsch actually wrote a nice paper back book called "Shadow Casting" (and there is also a video) that describes much of the detail of the making of the movie. I would expect you can find those items. In short, both bamboo and Hexagraph rods were used in the movie, but the Hexagraphs played a major role in the casting .... it's one of our little claims to fame. Some of the articles linked on our website speak to the project.

Harry Briscoe, President
Hexagraph Fly Rod Co.”

Mr. Briscoe asked for the website and link to this thread. I will forward it to him. He may have further insight into this question.

Mike Bradfrod
R.M.B. Fishing Rods
Nampa, Idaho