ASPINDALE ALUMINIUM RODS

[John Harding]

Good evening all,

There was a post recently, which unfortunately I can not locate at the moment, in which the member was looking for information regarding an Aspindale Croftdale aluminium rod. I remember that a link was provided to a post I made a while ago regarding one of those Croftdale rods that I have and have used, hopefully my earlier post helped.

I thought it may be of interest to know that Aspindales supplied at least one other aluminium rod and I was fortunate enough to obtain one from the sale of Peter Aspindale's rods at Bigwood's auction earlier this year. The rod is called The Findale No.2 and is again a 13ft float rod :-



The Findale No.2 looks to me to be very similar to the Croftdale No 2, unfortunately I have not had chance to use the Findale yet so I can not coment on how it performs.

Interestingly I have also been able to obtain another aluminium rod which is again very similar to the Crofdale, this rod is badged as :-
A. Stamford,Sheffield and is called the Aerolite 13ft. To me it is the same rod as the Aspindale Crofdale and if you look at the script on both rods there is a similarity in the style, although the letter A on the Aerolite is different to the A on the Aspindale Croftdale rod. Also if you look at the word "The" on the Aerolite there is very familiar letter T which seems to crop up on a lot of different rod makes, this has been commented on in another post.

The two rods :-



It seems that the 13ft rod is a fairly standard design, now wether Aspindales bought them all and then supplied them to various other shops or makers I don't know. Forshaws of Liverpool offered their version of this aluminium rod and it is believed that Aspinales produced some of Forshaw's cane rods, so it looks probable that they also supplied them with the aluminium rod as well. Also of interest, at the time of posting this, there is an aluminium rod called The Angoloy by Chapmans of Ware for sale on a well know auction site and this rod looks identical to the others I have mentioned but the writing on the rod on this one does look to be in a different hand.

Hope this has been of interest.

Regards,
John

[Olly]

There has been mention of a 10ft 6 Aspindale aluminium rod although I have not seen one either in the flesh as pictures.

[ReelMaker]

Hi friends,yes I had seen a Milwards rod that was offered around 1965 ad I think that was called the aerolite it was made from aircraft aluminium, may be some one here may have a Milwards catalogue? Reelmaker.

[Duckett]

Off the top of my head, the idea of a metal fishing rod sounds just plain daft to me! So, I have to ask, what are these seeming Heath Robinson creations like to actually fish with?

[Olly]

I have just found one made by Chapman's of Ware! 13ft including spliced glass tip section. Yours for a £5!!

Apollo made tubular steel rods for spinning and float fishing, I had a 14 footer for laying on.

Add aluminum ones by - Aspindale - Chapman - Milwards - etc. They must of worked!

Tank aerials were all the rage - cheap rods.

Metal fishing rods have been about for some years - esp in the USA.

[John Harding]

Ducket,

Thanks for your interest in my post, I certainly wouldn't describe the aluminium rods as Heath Robinson, they are very nicely made rods and are finished to as good a standard as glass or cane rods, at least the ones I have encountered.

As to how they fish, the only one of the three that I have that I have used is the Croftdale, in the hand it is quite light and all of the action is in the fibre glass tip section. I would say that they are more suitable to match style fishing, indeed that is what they were designed for. They will handle the smaller species such as roach and skimmer bream with no problems, I personally would not target carp or tench with them but may be they will be o.k for smaller examples of those species, I honestly don't know.

Regards,
John.

[Reedling]

Dad bought me a tank aerial from Sams army surplus store at Woolwich London on recommendation from a friend of his, as I showed an interest in fishing. It broke pretty quickly and dad was not that happy, next rod was solid glass that was more robust. I have a Mordex metal rod but to be honest I have not got around to trying it yet, it is painted black and has a sticker royle seal on it, with a picture of a seal on a rock if I remember correctly.

[Duckett]

Ducket,

Thanks for your interest in my post, I certainly wouldn't describe the aluminium rods as Heath Robinson, they are very nicely made rods and are finished to as good a standard as glass or cane rods, at least the ones I have encountered.

As to how they fish, the only one of the three that I have that I have used is the Croftdale, in the hand it is quite light and all of the action is in the fibre glass tip section. I would say that they are more suitable to match style fishing, indeed that is what they were designed for. They will handle the smaller species such as roach and skimmer bream with no problems, I personally would not target carp or tench with them but may be they will be o.k for smaller examples of those species, I honestly don't know.

Regards,
John.

Thanks for this John. Rigid bottom sections with a glass tip section does make sense for a very fast action match rod for smaller fish. Unless too thick walled and heavy to be practical, I couldn’t see them handle larger or aggressive fish without a danger of them crumpling! I guess their short manufacturing life would be down to the rapid development and improvement in hollow glass.

I do wonder if they were actually quite cheap to make?

[Olly]

The Apollo range - Taperflash - Taperflix(?) etc - were more powerful as they, to the best of my knowledge, were not aluminum.

And yep - a transitional period between cane and good quality hollow glass. The first hollow glass rods were gutless with them bending all through and striking was a very slow process!

[Wallys-Cast]

They are light rods and nice to fish with but some have metal corrosion issues near the ferrules. I had one collapse during a cast, it broke at the ferrule on the butt to mid section joint, on looking inside the tube it was well corroded so it must have allowed moisture to get inside from somewhere.
I had another one which snapped at the mid to tip joint with very little pressure on it.
It appears to be electrolytic or bimetallic corrosion caused by the two metals touching in the presence of moisture. I think it would only take a slight gap in the adhesive between ferrule and tube to allow moisture to be drawn in as the tube cools down on a warm but rainy day. Once inside it is trapped and eats away at the metal from inside.

All that said, I have a mate who's been using one for years and has had no problems at all.

Wal.