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armalite rods

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century armalite 12ft 2.1/4 tc any one use these for barbel fishing
 
Built a couple of pairs for a very cloak-and-dagger Thames carp and barbel fisher back in 1988 / 89. He liked them for "launching" the necessary in big water and for some 30-pound carp he had found and was after and eventually caught.
 
PS - I have just shoved my head into a cupboard and found the something I had suspected that I still have: a brand new, late 1980s, 12ft 2lb TC Century Armalite blank! Bit tip-heavy, but through-ish in action and tough as hell. Hmm...

Steady, Paul, you don't want to go building your first rod in 21 years.
 
Hi men ,

I too had these , and after only a couple of trips to Stanborough lake (cracker factory ) soon made a massive loss on them , and had Diawa amorphos asap . In the lighter tc should be ok for barbel though .

Hatter
 
Someone - a few people - out there will have have some virtually unique Barbel / Chub / Roach Quiver Specials I did for a very few clients built on made specially for me 11ft. 1lb and 1.25lb TC ultra low diameter, lighter Armalite blanks (11ft rod, with removable tip ring and overfitting 12 to 17 inch carbon quivers). I tested the first blank out of the factory on small-river salmon, the 11-footer taking a 12-pounder. "Yup, these won't break...". Nice rods.
 
If that's a brown blank I've got one.

I was told it was a Jill Orme special.

I lopped 4 inches off the handle of mine which has improved it no end in my opinion.
 
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I think the brown/burgundy blank was the first SP version, tho I am not 100% certain.

My understanding was that Mk1's Armalite are a grey carbon weave blank, Mk2's are green carbon weave blank. The Mk1's were meant to be a better rod that Mk2's.

I had three Mk1's & sold them - one of the worse moves I made. For most of my general fishing & being an old, well used rod they were perfect for most of my short range work.
 
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I had two, grey/woven blank I think, back in the 80s when fishing for the carp at Somerley. 2.25 TC was considered quite pokey back then, but we were casting a long way - up to 80 yards sometimes. I remember that one of the regulars, Kev (who we all knew as Bananaman, and who netted my first ever '20') had 3lb TC Armalites, and we all thought he was bonkers. Standard kit now, of course.

How times change.

Loved the rods, hated the name.

Ended up going all floppy by about 1989 of course, but I remember them fondly. For big rivers, reckon they would do a job.

jon
 
Hi men,

I had some 3lb Tc grey blanks, and yes ahead of the game due to making all the stainless systems for Leslies of Luton with people in the shop talking about them , and had a whisper that they were great rods . Are we all looking through those special rosey glasses ?,they were **** . Tip heavy , **** action . 2 trips later I bought some real quality , and someone got some cheap rods !.

Hatter
 
I hated the majority of Armalites - and I was one of probably only two men (the other being Hutchie) the firm bounced new blanks off first. I had been banging on to its owner, then a personal and family friend as well as business associate, "I want low diameter ... low diameter ... low diameter ... low diameter but light and not thick-walled and not tip-heavy" for a range of rods - carp, barbel, chub, spessie stuff - I had in mind a full year or so before the appearance of the Armalite. I was sent / handled in the Washington plant some of the very first no-name Armalites, hated them - "Horrible. But you'll still sell thousands...". The firm did; and so did I, in the hundreds. Didn't stop me getting them to do me specials though, which, as I spent a fair fair bob with them, they duly did. Light rods, as mentioned above, and the four 11ft, medium diameter, semi-fast, woven carbon-Kevlar blanks that became the Ganges mahseer spinning rods (2 light, 2 heavy) for the 1989 filming of the TV film, Casting For Gold. Still have three of the latter, the other being left in India in 1989 as a gift for the wonderful, elderly and ailing Morris Mehta, a great mahseer fisher, who appeared in CFG.
 
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Hi men

Hutchie did a talk for me when I was RO for the carp society and I had some of his 12 ft blanks built by A Brown of Hitchen with full length duplon handles ( only just at that time possible ) . Again , ligther in weight than the armilites but still lacked something , and was poss good at everthing not great at anything . Nice to play fish on though .

Hatter
 
Hutchie can thank me for his best range, the Sabre. I developed the mid-diameter, woven-carbon blank with Century and sold them as the Graham Phillips "Cougar" (predatory ladies of a certain age were around back then, but had a different name) carp rod range. When I sold G.P., Hutchie took on the Cougar blank, which duly became his not half-bad at all Sabre Mk. II. My rods had gone out in natural coloured carbon weave ground flat and factory-dipped gloss varnish; Hutchie's later Sabres went out in some shade of brown, I seem to remember.
 
PS - A correction to above

I gave Rod the Cougar Mk.I blank for his Sabre, and introduced a low-diameter Cougar Mk. II, built on new woven-carbon blanks wrapped on Armalite mandrels, but far thinner in the wall, lighter all-round and not tip-heavy. Nice rods - at least until Century changed the materials spec. for the new owner of the company after I sold it: the new "improved" Mk. IIs were poker-stiff and, to my mind, pretty nasty.
 
PPS - I got Mark Tunley to build a couple of my old 12ft 1.75lb and 2lb TC Cougar Mk II blanks for me three or so years ago. Full cork handle etc to my spec. Lovely through-ish actioned, heavier barbel rods that get out now and again (for both barbel and river carp) Couldn't have done better myself...
 
i had a couple of armalite 21/4 tc built when 1st came available, mine were black with maybe a slight grey tinge but i would have called em black, funny enough still have my 3lb tc mk1s too, great rods but the early ones sometimes burst around the spigot if not whipped right
 
Yes, John. The very early ones - like the first fifty(?) - were so bad that Century sent Armalite blanks out with a 3-inch-long woven carbon-Kevlar sleeve that was intended to be slid down the top section before wrapping rings on it, then slid down over the entire female-male area when a finished rod was assembled. When the firm sent me three such very early blanks, I got on the phone and tore my pal the owner off a strip - "You're not charging me for these. I'm keeping the butt sections for landing-net arms and the tips to support tomatoes in the garden. Let me know when you have the blank right, and I will order some from you...".
 
Robert Linwood said:
century armalite 12ft 2.1/4 tc any one use these for barbel fishing
Click to expand...

Hi Robert,
I have 3 of these that are well over 20 years old and one of them i use during highish water conditions and i have taken barbel to 15+ with it. IMO these rods are iconic, from the advert that promoted them, ''two tonne armalite...'', to the fact that they are still tougher than any other specialist fishing rod out there today yet have seen more action than a back street whore. They truly are incredibly versatile. Although lots of people do not like them because they are slightly 'tip heavy'; strength does not come in thin walled blanks :rolleyes:! Mine have been trodden on numerous times, abused countless times yet still i would not part with them for any other rod on todays market. That says it all for me on the old MK1 Armalites. Except to say that i have 2 new Harrison rods that have an awful lot to live upto considering the outlay involved and the 'testing' period to run!:)
 
cheers lads very helpful indeed if i were to couple a pair of these up with reels what would be ideal to balance them off nicely any advice would be realy helpful as i have never had this tc rod before cheers
 
Something along the lines of a bigger Shimano baitrunner (10000 etc) is what i use as it gives fantastic cranking power, has a good rear clutch and the baitrunner is reliable in high water conditions. I can only recommend Shimano reels though as for the past couple of decades have used no other!
 
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