Hi guys,
Was wondering if anyone knew what a fenwick 1441 blank is?
thanks

From what I can find out is that it is a Fenwick 12' HMG 1441 noodle rod/blank...

Thad
Dutchman's Creek Tackle

Travis, Fenwick sold the 1441 in both Fiberglass (E-glass, not Fenglass) and HMG graphite. They are noodle rod blanks. The fiberglass has a little more powerful, probably suitable for 4-8lb line while the HMG was a little less powerful, maybe for 2-6lb line.

If I recall correctly, I first purchased 6 of the fiberglass 1441. I built 4 of them for use as lite-line downrigger rods for a local charter captain. They held up well, after 8 years of charter use, he brought them back to me to refinish as they were pretty beat up by then but still quite serviceable. I also built a 5th for another customer who used it somewhat regularly for fishing from shore (river fishing) when the salmon were running. None of the rods built on these blanks ever had a problem that I am aware of.

With the success of the fiberglass rods, a year or so later I bought 6 of the HMG graphite blanks. The first season I built three; all three failed within a year about 2/3 of the way up the rear section. Fenwick replaced each blank for my customers, but I talked each owner into letting me rebuild their rod with a different MFG's blank. I ended up using the tip sections of each of the HMGs to make some slow action UL panfish/crappie rods for the nieces and nephews and used the butt sections to wrap some thread/finish color samples - others I cut up for repair material.

Even though the two blanks share the same 1441 nomenclature, they are really nothing alike (other than each having the classic noodle rod action). I don't know if Fenwick ever improved the design of the HMG, but I never built on another one after that.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2013 09:03AM by John E Powell.

John, the HMG IronHawk SH 1441 blanks were only rated for 1-4 LB test line. I also had a couple of blank failures with this blank, but it was due to people using 6-8 lb test line and trying to horse a fish in rather than using the rod the way it was intended.

Randolph, I couldn't recall the line rating and guessed wrongly. I looked for my box of old catalogs, but couldn't remember where I put it. Boy my memory is 0/2 today.

After all these years, it's sort of settling to know others experienced similar failures with that model, not just I.