Yet again another vintage fly rod find.

[BilletHead]

      Fenwick FF805. Pristine condition. Never had a reel on it until yesterday. In rod sock and tube. 45 bucks. @tjm from what I can tell mid 70s to mid 80s? What do you think? I like it!

[fishinwrench]

My very first flyrod was a 806 brown Fenwick with a 6wt. Level line.   That one you have has a nicer reel seat on it 👍  

I fished that rod for about 10 years.....then traded it to a guy for a Remington Nylon 66 .22 rifle (that surprisingly was a TACK DRIVER). 

Does that one have metal ferrels on it ?    That's the only thing I didn't like about mine.....and I'm not sure why, because it felt and casted really nice, even with the crappy line.  

[fishinwrench]

If you ever decide to part with that sweetheart.....Please lemme know 😘 

[BilletHead]

10 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

If you ever decide to part with that sweetheart.....Please lemme know 😘 

   The good ferrels!

[fishinwrench]

Right on 👍 

The "FF" in the model # stands for "Fenwick Ferrulelite".  Early '80's I think.  

[Flysmallie]

54 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

then traded it to a guy for a Remington Nylon 66 .22 rifle (that surprisingly was a TACK DRIVER). 

I’ve got one of those somewhere. Had it around 50 years now. Fun little rifle. 

[netboy]

Those old fly rods are great finds. I refurbished an old 4wt, 8 foot Shakespeare Wonder rod my Dad loved to use at Bennett Spring back in the 60's. I still take it out occaisionally just for the memories.

[Foghorn]

Hey Marty, you need to get out and put a little bend in that old Fenwick!

[Foghorn]

Had an old 4'9" Fenwick spinning rod years ago-still wish I had it. Bought a 5'3" Fenwick fly rod from Tim at his fly shop at Roaring back in the early 90's. Blistering cold March the second and 4 of us went to his shop to delay freezing our tails off. Three of us bought those little rods and a Orvis Battenkill large arbor reel and hit the stream at a balmy 4 degrees. First fish I caught on that little 5 weight would have gone 10.5-11#. We didn't have cell phones and the closest phone was in buddy Rick's car. It was a 35mm and he drove around the park with the phone next to the heater a couple times trying to get the camera to advance. I left the fish in the water the whole time and let it go. Next year buddy Danny caught a 9# 5oz. rainbow on his.. 

[tjm]

The three digit model number "805" places it between 1972-1988 when they became Woodstream, it tells us it's length is 8'0" and it's rated as a 5wt. The letter "M" in the serial number dates it's production to the 1974-75 manufacturing  year which was approximately Aug '74-July '75. Give or take. From the accounts of former workers that I've read they weren't exact on dates. Still Fenwick is one of the best documented of the production fiberglass rods. Quite a few users say their FF805s are 6wts, other users disagree, saying theirs are just as rated. on the other hand I have a couple of Fenwicks that I down line one weight from the rating, so take the line rating as a suggestion and experiment. I think the resin used changed from batch to batch and the rods from any one run might be different from the run before or the run after. In the Fenwick line I prefer the two digit models made from '63-'71. 

You'll have fun fishing that rod if you keep the casts under ~50'. One caution, and it applies to all glass to glass ferules, if you  roll cast a lot check that ferrule about every 10-15 casts, because the torque of roll casting does twist them loose. I recommend the canning paraffin (or candle) be rubbed on the male ferrule per Fenwick's instruction until it's coated in wax then rubbed off with a clean cloth or paper towel until just a slight film of wax remains, barely enough for lubrication. I usually have birthday cake candle in a vest pocket for this, because it seems to help keep those joints together. 

I have an FF807 about the same age that I'd sell and an FF75 and FF85  a little older that don't get much use that I should sell. With something like two dozen fly rods I surely don't need all of them.