Unknown Sportex fishing rod

[Beto]

Hello forum folks, how are you?!

My name is Alberto, I'm from the south of Brazil, I don't know how to speak English and that's why I used the translator heheh, I'm just starting out fishing and I have doubts about the technical information of a piece of equipment I have. They are fishing rods, they are made of tubular fiberglass, 3.8 meters in length, initially manufactured by Sportex and only the blank without guides is sold, they are called here in my region "Sportex wall 8 RL", quite old, I can't bring them the production/sale date because I can't find anything about it on the internet, it's complicated even buying and selling it.


Sportex wall 7 in action:
https://www.tiktok.com/@viniciusbraunfishinglife/video/7340772773586865414

Check out images!

[happyhooker]

Greetings, Beto, from Minnesota USA.

Have never seen rods like the ones you pictured.  There are lots of folks on this AT site who are very knowledgeable about old rods, and you may very well get more info from them.

Frank

[Beto]

Thank you very much Frank, I believe so, here on the AT I will get the information I want.

[oc1]

My guess is custom made surf rods built on Lamiglas blanks.  I don't think they came from a factory with that twine winding in the handle..  Search for Honey Lamiglas and see if that looks familiar.  Lamiglas has been around since the 1950's but the black handle material is much later.

[Beto]

Hello, in fact, they did not come with the strings on the bases or the passers. I know that only the blanks were sold.

And yes, they could be Honey Lamiglas blanks, but I didn't find any with the same size, which would be 12' or 380 centimeters.

There was also a special edition of these rods that have a brown or woodier blank, we call it sportex Erika around here.
                                                       
In this video there is a exemplary of "Sportex Erika" heheh:
https://www.tiktok.com/@pescapesadacidreira/video/7293696326762597638

[cbar45]

I looked up "Sportex" on rodbuilding.org and it appears they were a European blank manufacturer, building for the catfish and carp market among others.

Sweet action on that rod in the first video you posted.

[Beto]

Yes, these rods are excellent, even though they are very old there are still a lot of people using them here. That's why I'm looking for technical information about these rods.

[oc1]

The brown one is likely phenolic resin, also known as "tobacco rods" or "Trevano rods".  I can't tell from the video, but if you look close you should be able to see the fiberglass weave inside the resin.  They were discussed here on AT.

The tobacco rods are from the earliest days of fiberglass.  Lamiglas, Harnell, etc. were the next generation of hollow, mandrel-wound rods and used pigments to obscure the brown.

[Beto]

Thank you very much Steve for the tip, I researched here on AT I found a lot of interesting content and even sent a message to a member to see if he could find anything.

[foakes]

Yes, these were only sold as blanks in Europe (UK & Germany primarily).

They were primarily used as "float" rods to keep bait off the bottom, and also the long, limber action would do well on a lot of the fish such as bream, carp, etc..

Some of these were made in West Germany around the early 70's, and some were manufactured in the UK.

They are a good quality rod, although not of great value.

There are many excellent quality rods from this era that while they are not too expensive —- they are solid performers that will catch a lot of fish.

Float fishing is very big in Germany, UK, and other parts of Europe.

Best, Fred