The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I have one of Ted Oliver's Roach Perfection rods in the condition in which it left his workshop (bar some light groundbait colouring on the cork) and I have to say that the quality of whipping is quite astonishingly high.

Other makers had ladies employed on rod whipping so I'm sure that Ted wasn't saying they couldn't do the job, rather that he was speaking honestly about his personal experience that no girl who had attempted it had met his own exacting standards.

My post was not intended to imply that Ted was a misogynist, it was simply to spread the wry smile that it gave me to think of the fatwa that the equality Taliban would declare on him if he said the same today.

Troutbeck

The best 10' Avon rod I ever waggled was an Olivers. It was light and sharp unlike any other I've held. Called the MkV. It was finished in straw and gold silk and looked understated. I liked that.