Recent content by Ralph Harris

Two of each! They must be generally well liked, they don’t come up on the secondhand market that much in either the standard or stepped up form. I see you use two rods on the Avon.When I fished the Avon, mostly at Ibsley I never felt that I could use two rods, the swims seemed too small. I...

I am presently considering buying an 11ft Torrix 1.75lb specialist blank. I have previously brought the Harrison Avon 1.4lb and nice it is, although the through action makes it feel a little soft in the strike. It works fine really, but by the time I have taken up the bow in the line and the rod...

Jim, All of the advice I seen Richard give is very sound, he obviously particularly knowledgeable when it comes to trotting for large fish with longer rods. From my experience additional rings, particularly small ones won’t weigh a lot.

Thanks Jim, certainly not built up to a custom rod builder standards but good enough to look reasonable. I look at their professional builders photos and start to think they must have special kit to get finishes that good. Then I think a poor craftsman always blames his tools, and I then try a...

Remember there are different minima guides, some will be softer than others, I put the model number I used in my post by same guide do you mean exactly the same. I’m no expert I just think about things and form an opinion. I could easily be seriously wrong but if it still looks like a fishing...

T The model I used was pac bay KM4KG. The butt ring seems very robust, I don’t think it will bend unless you give it some severe force. I think if that much force was applied to the guide the blank would be damaged, it’s that robust. The ring is also very hard, when I tried to file down the...

If you are having a rod built to use both centrepin and fixed spool, consider selecting ring sizes and positions to suit a fixed spool reel. Centrepins are less affected by guide size and position so won’t really be affected by a fixed spool layout. But the first ring would be larger than you...

I have just rebuilt my old Harrison GTI 12 ft and these were my design considerations. I used the more expensive version of minima stand off rings, because others were not available. Not used the rod at all yet so there is no reliability on the rings. What I can say is they are made of very hard...

Thanks for the advice Andrew, the application sounds fairly easy, probably 10 years of practice might make my hand writing sufficiently legible.

Thanks Andrew, I’ll have look into that, I too have a pen from Guides and blanks and won’t use it again.

I have quite a few rods that I have for particular circumstances, already got more than I need really, but that won’t stop me because I like building them. I got the GTI for £20 and it was fun to use but tatty, looking forward to trying it when rebuilt. Looks like you hand wrote on the butt of...

Yes it is a Bob Church rod. It got sidelined when I brought the Harrison Avon, If you have paid that much money you’re going to want to use it! But perhaps the Stef Horak is really the rod I needed and I had it anyway. Perhaps I’ll get it out and try it again. It will work fine since it is only...

Andrew, Thanks for your opinion on the rod. One day I will treat myself to a new Harrison rod. I have just about settled on an 11 ft 1.75 Torrix, but I have always thought of the Avon SU as a possibility. I have a Stef Horak "Great Ouse" 11ft stepped up rod. It has a lovely action possibly like...

If you have rods based upon both the Avon and the Avon SU, how do you feel about the performance of each? I have an Avon and I sometimes feel it was the wrong choice, since it feels a bit soft. The SU on paper has only a few ounces greater test curve and I know test curve certainly is not an...

You can pick up old poles fairly cheaply. Choose the smallest sections you can get away with, glue sections together if necessary. Make up some sort of ends and you have a low diameter carbon fibre storage for your rod. The rod needs cloth protection though since the rings will rub on the inside...