I JUST FOUND A FENWICKNIGHTCRAWLER SERIES ROD MODEL FL108-9. I DETERMINED IT WAS A BLANK FLY ROD, BUT THE NIGHTCRAWLER SECRETS MAKES ME THINK IT MIGHT BE DIFFERENT. IT IS BUILT AS A SPINNING ROD.
ANY INFO WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
THANKS

Robert,
In the mid 70's Fishing Facts Magazine had a series of rods designed to fish nightcrawlers with light hooks and line. They made the rods near Milwaukee, WI. There was a book called "Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers" that details the rods in it.
Scott

Thank you very much for the info.
Bob

Robert,
The Fenwick FL108-9 blank that you mentioned was an E-Glass Fiberglass fly rod blank that was offered by Fenwick until they discontinued selling blanks in 1985. If it is is a two piece blank then the proper model number is FL108-9F. The added F stands for ferruled. At various times in it's product life cycle it was offered in both Fenwick yellow and Fenwick Brown.
I suspect that in the '70's and 80's many of these fly blanks were made up as spinning rods by builders all over the country but it was very popular in the Upper Midwest. You will occasionally see these blanks turn up on @#$%&.
During the years from 1975 to 1985 Fenwick was selling fewer than 50 of this model per year so there was not a huge supply available back then and considerably less today.

Vic

Vic
Thank you very much. The history is very interesting to me.
Bob

Hi, Just to add a little to this post, Fishing Facts had a line of rods for a few years including various spinning and casting rods in addition to the nightcrawler secrets rods. The ones I recall were based on Fenwick's gold series blanks. This began when they were a storefront on Oakland Ave. on the east side of Milwaukee and then carried over when they moved to Menomonie Falls. They offered two nightcrawler secrets rod, one 8 1/2' and a shorter one that was 7' if memory serves me. The 8 1/2' rod was very floppy with terrrible dampening, and while it allowed the fisherman to use light line, setting the hook was a challenge and controlling any fish around wood or weeds was not easy. The rod also lacked for sensitivity. If I wanted one today, I would not search the @#$%& site but rather would buy a medium fast to fast fly rod blank. MudHole offers some nice ones but there are other sources as well. Add a split cork handle and light reel seat with light guides and you'd be all set. The alternative would be to buy a European style rod, maybe 10-11'. There are some good ones available.