I was fishing this private members water on Dartmoor, must be 35yrs ago ..

Met this guy who I found out after was a wealthy sheep farmer,and eventually went on to win early masterchef,a few years after.

Anyway ,he had a set of mk1 Armalites..I never could afford a set ..until last year I found a triplicate of unused 2.75 tc Armalites built by Bob the Rod, it was worth the wait..and it's all I use now. 9 eyes ,30 mm butt etc .

Previous to this my son bought a pair of mk1 ,non autoclaved Armalites off of here ,and they still get regular use..

Love the older gear,modern stuff, seems ,boring ,soulless and it's all black in colour ,looks the same.. !

In reply to Post #44
Youngy built a fair few sets on harrison blanks with down locking reel seats .

In reply to Post #36
oh very nice I had a pair of 11ft 2lb that were unbelievable for playing fish on

In reply to Post #48
It was all Gibbos fault, quoting some Japanese rod builder as that's how fuji designed them

In reply to Post #48
Those reel seat upside down...... to the norm.
Wasn't it more to do with the pressure on the front part of the moulded reel seat causing them to open up by over tightening pressures ?

WHEREAS the upside down way, it simply unwound a bit.... seems to remember some hype on Simpsons advert somewhere, could be wrong.

In reply to Post #51
theres a set of 3 original 'Tails Up' harrisons on faceache marketplace for 110, soooo tempting and you know exactly how they will perform

My favourite vintage carp rod is a Dawson's of Bromley Challenger. I think it's 10ft and is two-piece split cane. I would reckon it's approximately 1.5lb test curve. It's a true through action and you can feel the cane bending beneath your hands when you have a good fish on - which is a bit disconcerting if you're used to using carbon rods.

In reply to Post #52
Look in decent condition too 👍

In reply to Post #54
i know, slightly tempted tbh but already have 2 sets of harrison ballistas, do I really need a 3rd?

In reply to Post #55
For that money yes 👍

In reply to Post #56
i hate seeing them for sale, Im sorta up that way tonight visiting my mum......hmmmmm

In reply to Post #57

3) Tricast Custom Builds by Bob Morris / 12ft / 2lb (?)

Not sure of the model or the actual test curve. Yet to be used - bloody nice looking and light.

Perhaps more along the lines of what people consider to be true vintage.....

In reply to Post #59
I had 2 sets of tricasts built by bob, great rods for the time.

I have a lot of tricasts , north westerns ( whom i worked for as a saturday lad ) armalites and they really are not a patch on todays blanks . Rose tinted and all that.