I now have a cane rod

[Flathead]

When I recently joined the forum I said that I did not have a cane rod but a few old vintage reels.

What I did not know, at the time, was that I do own a cane rod...it has been sat in the rafters of my garage for the last few years!

To explain.....my father in law moved down from Mansfield a few years ago to live near us in the Fens.

He gave me his old tackle as he is now 96. I gave a couple of his carbon rods away but kept an old, what I thought was glass, rod in his old hold-all but did not bother to examine it.

I got it down today and looked in the bag and found it is a cane Aspindale Aero 892. It is 12 ft long, nice and straight and, apart from a some ring whippings needing revarnishing it seems in really good nick and has been well looked after.

I know nothing about these rods and wonder if anyone could tell me a bit about it.

What line would I need with it and what type of fishing?

I will pair it with his old Allcocks Flickem perfection.

I am googling as much as I can but did not even realise I owned this rod until an hour ago

[Nobby]

Yours is an early rod made between 1946 and '49. It is hollow built, with out strengthening dams and they can be quite fragile if the glue has failed.


Give it a bend feeling and listening for creaks before you do anything with it just in case. Be particularly wary of twisting the cane if a ferrule gets stuck, it might well be more then it can take.

Up to 5lb line will be fine. It's a 'match' style rod, with a through action and can be a bit heavy on the wrist at 12 feet.

As you can imagine 12 feet of through action cane can feel quite floppy and they take a bit of getting used to, but can make a lovely underarm cast on a windy day.

We now know a fair bit about the firm; brothers William and James started the company after WW2. Prior to the war James, or 'Jimmy' had been rod room foreman at Millward where they had perfected the making of dam-less hollow-built split cane. As a result of his experience, the rods were an instant success, but the brothers pated ways in 1949.

William is said to have made rods under the Aero name, but in truth it seems he was an office man and the rods may have by Ken Johnson, ex Aspindale employee, for him.
I've yet to see of hear of a rod called Aero by him.

You can tell James' rods by the exceptionally fine handwriting using an unusual form of handwritten 'A' for his surname. The bar of which is almost a complete circle.





I've even found a picture of Jimmy, here with his son Peter who worked for him after 1949.




The picture was in the Angling Times and Peter has just won the Hampshire Avon Championship there in 1961.


I hope that is of some help.

[Flathead]

Thanks for that....very helpful

I note that the picture above states the rod was made at ‘Manor Works’. The one I have says it was made in ‘Astwood, Redditch’

Did they have more than one premises or move at some point?

The rod seems to be sound but I will be careful and, hopefully, post some pictures once I have the hang of it

Many thanks

[Flathead]

Sorry that should be ‘Astwood Bank’ Redditch

[Tonkin Wand]

Grateful for your input Nobby.... I have just gone and got my Aero out and identified it as a ' James Aspindale' product from your information about the letter "A". The rod is numbered 858 ,any ideas on date other than post 1949 ?I last used it one month ago and it performed satisfactory (I am never lucky enough to give any rod "a good work out" ) Tony...

[Olly]

A description would help - length - split cane or whole cane/split cane.
Pictures even better.