Very good advice from David , a man who knows ....
Thanks for your kind words David . I do not build cane rods from scratch , I don't have the requisite facilities/equipment , most of my work is refurbishing rods,fitting new rings ,re whipping and re varnishing ,and / or repairing rods with delamination , sets in the cane , worn out ferrules , cork handled damaged etc . As others have said cane rods are an absolute joy to use and are very capable tools to play large fish in the right circumstances . They are also great conversation starters ,regularly people come up to me saying '' my dad used to have one of those '' , or '' they look much nicer than modern rods '' I regularly see a chap who walks his dog on a local river he now simply hails me as Jack Hargreaves or Dick Walker ! The only limitations of cane rods are that compared to modern carbon or even fibreglass rods they are relatively heavy , they are not suited to casting heavy leads , and they require looking after properly , i.e.wiping down and drying after use , storing in a place that isn't damp , hot or subject to large temperature fluctuations. Cane does not take kindly to being stored in these sort of conditions . It never ceases to amaze me the superb build quality of some of the top name cane rods like Hardy and B James , even the hugely mass produced rods by Allcocks , Marco and Edgar Sealey are lovely bits of kit and with a little TLC are great rods . I recently re furbished a 70 year old 9ft 6 inch Hardy Salmon spinning rod , simply giving it a strip down , re whip and re varnish , the cane was still arrow straight and steely , on its first outing it landed a 10lb + Barbel ,no problem at all , they somehow have more soul than modern carbon rods and you feel more connected when playing a fish with them
.I love reading Bernard Venables Mr Crabtree book , old Crabtree never had that pipe out of his mouth , I reckon he puffed away at it to keep the midges at bay . The lad Peter always does as he's told , and never questions his dads wisdom and methods. I wonder what Mr C would make of todays Barbel fishing scene with the rod pods and bite alarms? Its a long way from cutting a branch for a rod rest and scouring your lobworms in moss that's for sure . Whenever I am on a river and I find an eddy , I always think of Crabtree he was a big fan of fishing them maintaining that's where all the big uns were , and he was usually right , Strike Peter ! !
That name do's ring a bell. I only went there for the rod once as he had one in stock. I'm a Holborn boy myself so a true city cockney. Only later in around 1958 did we move out to East Dulwich so not a million miles away from Bexley. After living in Holborn moving to Dulwich we thought we had move into the country. Houses had gardens. As twelve year olds we fished the River Lea at Enfield Lock. I would get up at 4.30 & cycle from Holborn to my school pals at Manor house then we both in to Enfield quite a cycle. When we moved to Dulwich I had to cycle across London as well before I got to him. Fish until dark & a long cycle trip home. We would collect our worms off peoples lawns with a torch while they were watching TV on a Saturday night ready for our Sunday trip. Half a pint of maggots between us both in a small tin with holes punched in it. Boy we were almost professionals. Cheers Robbie.
