Hello. Need advice on older (10 yrs +-) B&W rods. I am traveling to Scotland this winter, no fishing but I plan to poke around in fly shops and look at used rods. I am thinking about getting a used B&W Norway or Powerlite or Speycaster in at least 15’ to 16’-6” to play with. Maybe fish a little...
I have a handful of them. A little heavy compared to a 2023 rod, but they are long line cannons none the less. I have a 14’ 8-10 (rated for double tapers) and I’d rate it as a 7/8 modern spey line rating. It’ll pick up and and throw 10’ t-tips on a cut back DT9 well across all the rivers here in Ohio. They’re really tough rods (but a bit heavy) and this one ran me less that 3 bills. A ringed 4” Perfect balances it nicely and it’s easily fished all day.
Nick
I've owned two of them. One was, if I remember correctly, the same model as Rollingblock28 has; the other was a 15 foot rated as a 5 weight. Both were slow and heavy, and seemed to bend to the reel seat. I prefer slowish spey rods above all others, but these were too slow - spineless. I heard somewhere that they were of the "Bruce" series.
There are more than one range of B+W rods that came with the Magenta whippings, in fact there are loads. So, before any specific info can be passed on, it will help in knowing the exact rod, that info should be on the butt section just above the cork handle. Photo's will also help if the writings at all faded or hard to read. Initially I'd ask if the rod has a ground polished finish, or an unground blank with a Spiral Wrap.
Happy to help, no problem at all.
Yorkie.
The rod I looked at was a B&W 14', sanded blank rated for a 9/10 line. It is marked as a Bruce rod. It is a 3 piece rod, I was concerned that tip section was at least an inch shorter than the butt and mid sections. It is a heavy rod for sure.
The tip section length doesn’t account for the spigot ferrule (male end) so it may be shorter, but it should be the same length as the other pieces, minus the length of the spigot ferrules.
I had four B&W rods: an XLS 12ft which I sold long ago but an incredible rod for casting a waggler - fished a 3SSG waggler at 55 yards on the Thames one day, two John Deans - got one that's very worn and worth around a million pounds, bought at the 81 World Champs - caught so many big roach on it and won many matches, it was specially imbued with John Dean magic dust, the second one I broke the tip on it so still have the butt and middle, and finally had a MMM 13' that sold for a song long ago that was quite powerful but very light - wish I'd kept that one.
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