A family member wants me to build them a retro-looking rod that will hold the Penn 155 Beachmaster. He is looking for something along the old Fenwick brown or yellow type, but open to ideas. He plans on using 20lbs test and wants it 7' with a medium or slow action. Any suggestions?

Somewhere around 2002 Rainshadow/Utmost Ent. bought the remains of the Rodco facility and incorporated many of the old patterns/mandrels into their SW lineup. Many old Penn/Sabre, Conolon, etc. blanks were resurrected there, a good retro rod starting point I think. The old resins made those brown blanks, they're not used any longer.

Try to find an old Fenwick rod on e----bay to strip and rebuild?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2015 08:00AM by Jay Dubay.

What about something in the honey color from Lamiglas? I recently built on an old honey colored Lami 6702 that was given to me at the ORBS Gathering from one of the members new old stock. If the current honey color is similar at all, it'll have the look you are looking for. I believe the 6702 to be most similar to the current MB 84 1E in the light saltwater fiberglass rods. Perhaps the MB 84 2F will get the job done. I would think 20 lb line would be at the upper end of the range for these blanks though.

Is he using it as a wall hanger or for fishing?

My 6702 became a bass cranking rod putting a modern twist on a retro blank. It has split EVA grips in a black/light gray wood grain and spiral wrapped PacBay Minima guides to give it the look of older stainless guides. I've been quite happy with it, and it performs quite well alongside my RFLE 765 cranking blank.