Any idea what rod Ivan Marks is using in this picture taken

[DaceAce]

Part of my ongoing Ivan Marks research - any ideas?

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[SeanM]

That looks like a Spanish reed match rod.

[DaceAce]

It's been suggested that it may be a A E Rudge rod with a greenheart top which was supposed to be more kind to fine hook lengths.

[SeanM]

I take it that that's an extremely long landing net pole that you can see behind him in the picture. Presumably they tended to be longer in those days to avoid stressing the delicate rod tips?

[DaceAce]

I take it that that's an extremely long landing net pole that you can see behind him in the picture. Presumably they tended to be longer in those days to avoid stressing the delicate rod tips?

It is a landing net with a good roach in it.

[Nobby]

I'm inclined to guess a Spanish reed rod as it has a few odd whips that seem out of place if they aren't there to cover nodes. I can just make out a splice in both middle and but sections, but the tip section is too hard to make out.


I'd have thought it a bit late in the day for a greenheart tip, if it isn't built cane isn't fibreglass more likely? Ivan came to prominence winning the Great Ouse Matches in the Sixties....surely no one was offering greenheart by then...???


As to make....not a clue it could be anybody's...they'd all surely make whatever the master asked for so it might be unique.

[DaceAce]

Ivan and mates were chopping and changing rods using whatever they could find to get the action they required so greenheart is possible. In the original picture, the tip is very dark when viewed with my loupe, though the picture breaks up into dots. As you say there were experiments with fibreglass tips etc. I'm not sure a Spanish reed rod would have stood up to the rigours of the Hants Avon which is where this shot was taken. I have some knowledge of some of his rods later on. The 1st Great Ouse Champs win was 1970; he was well known and winning big matches long before then.

[Reedling]

Looking at the whipping on the rod it appears to be whole cane/reed in the lower sections, it looks like random joint/nodes have been whipped over, the whips are not regular up the rod as on a built cane or glass rod.. Could it have been a Martin James rod with a built cane or glass tip?