Rod Love 5: Fine Fenwick Fiberglass

That's a lot of F's for one post title...

That's what happens when I write about one of the sweetest vintage fly rods I own, a first generation Fenwick FF75. Built around 1962 or '63, this FF75 is one of the first fly rods built with the patented "Feralite" ferrule, a tip-over-butt ferrule made out of fiberglass, unlike the metal-ferruled rods that preceded it. Using fiberglass for the ferrule improved the action and brought the weight of the rods down considerably. Fenwick's use of the Feralite ferrule catapulted them into the premier fly rod manufacturer of the time.


Feralite ferrule and gold foil, does it get any cooler?

And their old fly rods are still some of the nicest casting tools ever created. I have cast several of them over the years, and all of them were sweet in their own way. My FF75 is no exception; nice and slow, but not too slow. It delivers a 5wt line right where I want it to every time. Or at least it does when I make a decent cast, which is not actually every time, if I were to be honest for once in my life...

Let's take a look at the old FF75, shall we?

 

The trademark Fenwick wraps.

Old school gold foil