Aspindale Monarch No. 871

[John Harding]

Good evening all,

I recently added another rod to my Aspindale collection, the rod is named :- Monarch No.871, it is a two piece with low bells rings and a screw lock reel seat and it is 8ft 6" in length. There is one unusual feature, at least to me, and that is, it has the usual script on the butt section and following the model name it states "Aspindales Astwood Bank, Redditch". This is the first time that I have seen Astwood Bank included in the script. I think the rod is meant to be a two piece spinning rod, although it is quite a powerful example, I thought that it could make a good stalking rod for carp.





I decided to give the rod a try this morning and see if I could try it out on possibly a carp or a good tench. I decided to try one of my local club's lakes and I chose a swim that was quite restricted in between two trees with the branches reaching down to the water.

The swim :-


Due to the short length of the rod it is not really suitable for float fishing and as I was not keen on looking at an indicator all morning I opted for a Locslide leger float which gave me the best of both styles, i.e. legering and a float to watch. I fed hemp, pellets and sweetcorn, my first cast was at 6 a.m. and I decided to try a large piece of flake as a first offering, it took a while to get a response and when the float went under it turned out to be a four ounce roach which made no impression on the rod. After a while I missed a bite on a pellet so I tried a piece of sweetcorn and after a while the float went under and I was attached to a good fish, it tried it's best to get into the branches but the rod did it's job and I finally landed a nice tench of about 3lbs :-


It went quiet for a while after the capture but I then hooked into another fish on a pellet which again did it's best to snag me but the rod won again and it was another nice tench of about 2lbs, I had another tench of about the same size on sweetcorn. By 10.30 a.m. I had had enough so I called it a day. I really enjoyed the session and I am pleased with the rod, I think it is an ideal rod where you need to employ hit and hold tactics in those jungle type swims.

One of the 2lb tench :-


Hope it has been of interest.
Regards,
John

[Wallys-Cast]

A very nice addition to your collection John and a good christening, well done.

A rare rod and at that length it is very likely to be a similar rod to the B James Grebe or the Hardy Egret spinning rods, both make very nice stalking rods and capable of handling double figure fish with relative ease.

Wal.

[Jeremy Croxall]

A very nice acquisition and looks to be a very useful rod. Great pictures and write up, I must try float ledgering as I have never done so before!

[Nobby]

Astwood Bank is almost a suburb of Redditch , just to the South on the A441. I think the original firm was in central Redditch on Prospect Hill, but later incarnations of the firm, gone into at length elsewhere on TFF, were in Astwood Bank. I'd guess they were in Prospect Hill, at the British Mills, until about 1959, but their ferrule-maker, Ken Johnson, was always there and he had also been making 'Aspindale' rods from 1949 when the original founders, the brothers James and William had parted company after only 3 years in business together.


If the rod says Astwood Bank, but doesn't include the Dalesman trade name I think it's likely to actually be a Ken Johnson rod made for William Aspindale. Possibly.

[John Harding]

Nobby,

Thanks for you info', as always very interesting and much appreciated. The Aspindale evolution is certainly a fascinating story and probably one that will never be 100% confirmed, it is such a pitty their records are not readily available.

Just another query regarding Astwood Bank, I notice that on that well known auction site there is a Sydney Jarvis fibre glass rod for sale and the script on the rod reads Sydney Jarvis, Astwood Bank, Redditch. I was wondering if there was any connection with Aspindale's or if it was just a coincidence that the two rod makers were in the same locality.

Regards,
John.

[Nobby]

New one to me....I'll have a pootle around the web....

[Olly]

I have found I have an Aspindale 871 Monarch - but 3 joints and at 10ft and very very powerful indeed. So powerful I mistook it for a sea rod at the time!

I recently found a brochure by 'FALCON' who made a 'Monarch' in 1972 in cane with various lengths for spinning. The 10fter was used for sea trout/salmon in the sea off Norway & Denmark..