Marco "Silver Monarch"

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

Post by Mole-Patrol »

The tunny idea might be close to the mark. The anglers fished from rowing boats that were rowed close to a fishing boat hauling its drift nets. Tuna used to mop up the casualties that fell from the nets as they were being hauled in and the anglers fished dead herrings close to the action. The rods used in this clip however are no more than 7 or 8 feet long; http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/tunny-action

And of course tunny fishing in Yorkshire ended before WWII and I think that this rod is later than the thirties.

The Silver Monarch isn't just a big blank, everything about it from the rod rings to the real seat and fore handle are XXL and the tip ring is one that would suit a top mounted reel. It was definitely designed for a purpose.

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Duckett
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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Mole-Patrol wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:18 am The tunny idea might be close to the mark. The anglers fished from rowing boats that were rowed close to a fishing boat hauling its drift nets. Tuna used to mop up the casualties that fell from the nets as they were being hauled in and the anglers fished dead herrings close to the action. The rods used in this clip however are no more than 7 or 8 feet long; http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/tunny-action

And of course tunny fishing in Yorkshire ended before WWII and I think that this rod is later than the thirties.

The Silver Monarch isn't just a big blank, everything about it from the rod rings to the real seat and fore handle are XXL and the tip ring is one that would suit a top mounted reel. It was definitely designed for a purpose.
Thanks for posting the film link. I’d known about The brief period of North Sea Tunny fishing since my days in Yorkshire but only seen photographs before.

I wonder if there is any chance your rod was a one-off, with a very specific purpose in mind.
From "... the wilds of the Wirral, whose wayward people both God and good men have quite given up on ...".

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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There are a few examples of these rods passing through auction houses. It has certainly been designed with a specific purpose in mind; long enough for casting, too long for general boat fishing, large fore grip, tip eye designed for a reel mounted on top, heavy duty reel seat and the double-built, steel-lined build with 5lb test curve.

It is probably from the 1950's so too late for masheer and too early for uptiding. Olly has suggested that it is a salmon rod and similar to the specifications of others of the era. I cannot find anything built as sturdily as this rod in the vintage salmon or pike rods. If you look at the Chapman's Dennis Pye pike rod or Hardy LRH3 rods for example they are quite feeble compared to the Silver Monarch.

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Olly
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

Post by Olly »

I said previously that I may be horribly wrong!

However according to the Farlows Catalogue of 1938 thee are two rods not dissimilar under salmon spinning rods!
The Farlow - 10ft - 17oz - double built cane.
The Barrett - 10ft9in - 18.5oz - split cane.
Both described as for use in "heavy water with big baits".

Anyone with an old Marco catalogue any where?

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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I appreciate the suggestions Olly. But the rod I have weighs 4lbs, over three times the weight of those you mention, and has a test curve of 5lb, over three times that of the Mk. IV carp rods that were designed for 40lb carp. Conger from the rocks?

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Duckett
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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Mole-Patrol wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:31 pm I appreciate the suggestions Olly. But the rod I have weighs 4lbs, over three times the weight of those you mention, and has a test curve of 5lb, over three times that of the Mk. IV carp rods that were designed for 40lb carp. Conger from the rocks?
In my youth I did fish for conger from the rocks in a couple of locations on Ynys Mon. Now, my experience is limited and old but, if they took a bait and got back into their holes in the rock, then nothing would shift them. To stop this, we used very beefy 10-12 foot beachcasters and still didn’t land that many conger.

Actually, and purely as an aside, I ended up preferring winkling out Wrasse from the same marks on lighter kit. Very sporting fish that seem only to have become a popular target for lure anglers in the last 20 years.
From "... the wilds of the Wirral, whose wayward people both God and good men have quite given up on ...".

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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The conger aspect would suit the rod's specifications. The nearest modern rod I can compare the strength of action to is an Ugly Stick uptider but that is shorter and uptiding did not come into vogue until well into the fibreglass / carbon era.

Out of interest what type of reels were employed for the shore conger fishing?

Like you I preferred pottering about for wrasse using float fished shellfish baits. Watching the float wash about between the rocks was therapeutic.

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Olly
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

Post by Olly »

I have a pair of glass Daiwa up-tiders (casting weight up to 10oz) used for cats in France. I have cast baits up to 1.5lb with one.

I also have 3 "black" 12ft 5lb t/c I use in the UK for cats, fishing with boilies/pellets/dead-baits and landed fish to just about 40 on them.

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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Yes, the Uptider rods are idea for catfish. The Silver Monarch is as close to the Ugly Stick Uptider in action as makes no difference whereas my 12 foot 5lb tc rod is hopeless for anything but bait delivery.

Marco made a cane beach caster and also cane boat rods, and given the dimensions of the Silver Monarch I am tending to sway towards its intended purpose being a heavy duty sea rod.

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Re: Marco "Silver Monarch"

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Mole-Patrol wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:37 am The conger aspect would suit the rod's specifications. The nearest modern rod I can compare the strength of action to is an Ugly Stick uptider but that is shorter and uptiding did not come into vogue until well into the fibreglass / carbon era.

Out of interest what type of reels were employed for the shore conger fishing?

Like you I preferred pottering about for wrasse using float fished shellfish baits. Watching the float wash about between the rocks was therapeutic.
I used an ABU7000 for all of my shore fishing. I had 2 spools - one loaded with 20lb line for general shore work and one with 30lb for fishing from rocks and reefs. I suppose we could have gone heavier but always felt the chances of landing a conger large enough to break that from reef or rock were probably very slim anyway.

This exchange led to me mentioning this to my brother yesterday and the irony is that we both recall our largest conger off the shore was around 25lb. It was caught by him, off the rock shelf at Moelfre, using a standard beachcaster and a large Diawa fixed spool, probably loaded with 20lb line and no wire trace! Never, ever set any firm rules in fishing eh?

Our favourite technique for Wrasse back then was to use a short trace with a ragworm and old bolts on weak mono links as weights. We bounced the bait around and and lost a lot of bolts but caught loads of Wrasse. Not unlike bouncing a soft plastic for them these days. A real bonus was a Pollock for the pot but we also saw a lot of mini-species like Dragonet and Rockling.

Happy memories!

Phil
From "... the wilds of the Wirral, whose wayward people both God and good men have quite given up on ...".

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