Barder Rod Co 7½’ #4-weight 3-piece 2-top fly rod & leather case.

Our seven foot six inch three piece four weight is an ideal all round small stream rod. Its rifle-like accuracy combines with finesse and reserve power to produce a particularly satisfying rod to fish with. This example is exceptionally attractive with its flame tempered dark caramel coloured bamboo, significantly swelled butt and transparent Pearsall’s Gossamer silk whippings.

This is not a model that comes up very often and it is available now, with its fully matured varnish, avoidance of a thirty month wait and new condition. Boastfulness is not an attractive trait but it would be technically correct to say that 7’6″ #4-weight rods don’t come any better than this.

Specification.

The split cane blank was flame tempered by hand to a medium caramel colour and has great resilience and vigour. The bamboo is flawless and the hand pressed and straightened nodes, staggered in the three-by-three Leonard configuration, are distant from critical areas such as ferrules, tip rings and the swelled butt.

The ferrules, made from nickel silver tube drawn to ¾ hardness, are our own make of Leonard pattern, waterproof, splint-ended, blued & lacquered. They are a perfect fit and have their classically shaped hand-turned Olive wood and cork stoppers.

The elegant and comfortable cigar shaped handle is made from the finest Flor grade Portuguese cork shives, which we cut into ¼” thick discs to make a stronger laminate and to ensure that only the cleanest fissure-free corks are used.

The reel seat spacer is made from highly figured Olive wood chosen for its durability. Its colour is in harmony with the split cane sections. The butt cap, impressed with our maker’s details and delicately knurled, is blued and lacquered, as are the sliding reel band (which is tapered internally to accept the slope of a fly reel’s foot) grip check and shoulder collar.

The snake guides and tip rings are hard chromed fine gauge stainless steel. The butt ring has a carbide centre. I finished all of the guides to a dark bronze using the original and otherwise extinct system of stove enamelling developed in Redditch for the bronzing of hooks.

The ring whippings are transparent (varnish saturated for flexibility and waterproofing) Pearsall’s Gossamer Light Olive –shade № 20. They are tipped with six turns of tan embroidery silk so fine that each tipping is the thickness of a single strand of Gossamer. The ferrules are whipped with Pearsall’s Gossamer Java brown –shade № 30.

The rod has a flawless, durable and long lasting yacht varnish finish.

It has a tailor made bag with an integral stiffener to protect the tips, and a fine leather hanging loop.

The hand stitched bridle leather case is lined with heavy gauge aluminium tube that will protect the rod from the rigours of travel. The overall external length of the case is 33½ inches.