Some of you may have seen a post I made last Monday regarding an Aspindale Croftdale aluminium alloy match rod which I had used for the first time, in the post I mentioned that I purchased another Aspindale match rod at the same time. I went out this morniing to give this rod a try, it is an Aspindale 13ft Frank Banner Match Rod, the butt and middle sections are whole cane and the top section is whole cane with a spliced in split cane tip.
This is the rod :-
![Image](http://i68.tinypic.com/sws19f.jpg)
![Image](http://i68.tinypic.com/9u5g2a.jpg)
The rod has been restored at some stage, the varnishing and whippings are nice, but for some reason, probably to cover up corrosion, the rings have been painted black, I may give them a rub down but on the other hand I can probably live with them as they are. Compared to the aluminium Croftdale rod this one is a little bit more responsive and the action progreses a bit more than the fibre glass tip on the other rod. I think as well it will cope with medium sized tench and maybe a small carp. Unfortunately I did not get much chance to test it on a lot of fish as I did not have a very productive time on the canal, I went back to the same spot as the last time but it took me quite a while to get a bite. The first fish was a perch of about half a pound, he gave a good account of himself and managed to get his own back on me by giving me a sharp jab with the spine on his gill cover, I always forget about those spines !. After the perch I only managed a small skimmer bream a tiny roach and another small perch. There was quite a cool breeze blowing early on and I don't think that helped, the sun took a long while to get on the water as it was blocked out by a very big willow tree, I think perhaps the fishing may have picked up as the water warmed up a bit, but I had to leave before that.
The meagre catch :-
![Image](http://i63.tinypic.com/35l6u4p.jpg)
I have not heared of the angler named on the rod, Frank Banner, I am guesing he must have been on the match scene in the 1950's to 1960's, If anyone has any information regarding him I would be very interested.
Regards,
John