The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Otter Special 13ft hollow built split cane rod bought today at auction
Agate lined butt and tip ring,s with high bells bronze colour inter,s.

Would anyone know when this was made, 50,s / 60,s ?

Or have any other info on the rod.

I do like that Lee.

Unusal handle too

The composite handle makes it an early rod I believe. Paul Cook is the man to ask, but I think those handles are the work of Clive Young's father or his apprentices, Ted Oliver or Bob Southwell.

Who worked for who, just when, is all a bit of a mystery and with Clive's passing last week we may never know now...there was also another rod builder there...Ian someone....but it's pretty much certain someone famous worked on that rod Lee!


It does have the later coloured transfer though....that might help someone date it.

Thanks for your reply Nobby.

I did read one of Paul,s post,s saying these handles were only fitted in 1954-5 ???????

It might be so...I really would PM Paul, he won't mind, honestly.

If that is the case it'll help tell us the date of the transition from plain gold to coloured transfer....at least I presume coloured came later...might not be so of course....

I thought such long rods were a Sixties thing......just goes to show you never stop learning.


Bet you don't see another of those in this lifetime!

There you go Lee , three mkiv 54/55 carp rods from the Youngs of Harrow stable .
This is from the "horses mouth" so to speak .According to Clive he could date these rods as it was just for this short period of time that he was to make use of composite cork and thin slithers of Portugese to break up the continuation of composite . In his words , composite did not bode well in hot or cold temperatures and was prone top shrink and come apart . Makes sense when I have seen this on some early rods where there are gaps in the composite . To get over this problem the idea came up to use portugese cork which seemed to hold the glue adhesion together much better .
The use of composite was due to the lack of decent stock of portugese cork being availible at that time , once it become easier to get then he went over to full cork . There were also periods when 5/8ths composite was used with 1/2 inch portugese cork as such on the recent avocet of theirs that I recently sold .
As you can see , the handle on your rod is exactly the same as on the three mkiv carp rods and with Clive giving me the dates then that is about as close as we can get to dating your rod .
The rod you have Lee is very nice and if anyone is looking for a decent barbel rod then this is it . I have had about three of these and moved them on . Very similar to the Chapmans Hunter although a slightly slimmer taper .

Thanks Paul

Great bit of info

Lee.

That suggest that the coloured transfer came about then too...those rods look identical otherwise...?

Nobby wrote:

That suggest that the coloured transfer came about then too...those rods look identical otherwise...?

Nobby It look,s like the coloured transfer was the early one and the plain gold the later

Have a look at this Fibreglass Otter Brand