The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Floatrover 6729
Spincraft 21319
Floatrover 54111
Floatcraft 54112
Floatranger 4241
Senior Featherlight 83510
Floatmaster 2385
Swimmaster 6531
Swimversa 7591 - Patent Applied For

Matchflex (Glass butt and mid, cane top) 84518

Matchcraft 10' 6" (Aluminium butt and mid, cane top) 15315
Matchcraft 12' (Aluminium butt and mid, cane top) 7637

Milwards Trout rover 9ft 34731 #6

I have a swimversa number 6600 can anyone date it for me Regards Martin

A small snippet of information from my 1962 Millwards catalogue states that, the Angling Times of 15th June 1958 included the Swimversa in its series "Tackle talk" and they called it a rod that is truly revolutionary. So we could assume the rod was fairly recent in the early part of 1958. I suppose it depends how many they made in a year but low rod numbers could indicate they were made in 1958.


Wal.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the serial numbers. I did think that they were in rough date order with possibly a different sequence for different ranges of rods but now I'm not so sure. I've got two Milwards rods that I know the year of manufacture for:


A Flycraft, serial number 3655, made in 1952 or early 1953

A Floatcraft, serial number 8370, probably made in 1963 serial number 8370

These dates are based on the year in which these rods were first purchased and I've assumed that they were not in the shop for more than a year. Looking back through the above posts I can see a 5 figure serial number for a Floatcraft (54112) and it is extremely unlikely (impossible!) that Milwards would have made over 40,000 rods between 1963 and them closing down. I wonder if the numbers related to the person, or section, who made the rod? But rods were made in one area of the factory, whipped in another and varnished in yet another. My best guess is that the number identifies who made the blank and then has a sequential bit tagged on the end. It is only a guess though!


Just to confuse matters even more I have an 8ft spinning rod just labelled "A Specialist Rod by Milwards" which has no logo or serial number!

My Swimversa has the number 85210 12' Pat No 859961 inscribed in white ink on the butt section, it is the version with the built cane spliced section in the middle joint .. Previously owned by a member of this august forum and completely refurbished by Andrew Davis ..

Senior featherlite 14’ C420

Hi did they ever make a 10ft Floatrover ,? I seem to think I did see one on ebay a few years ago.or was it a cut down 11ft Reelmaker

I don't think that they made a 10ft Float Rover Reelmaker. I can thoroughly recommend the 10ft 6in Floatcraft as a nice light general purpose rod. They are well balanced and light in the hand and can handle good sized fish.

I have a featherlite.1943 and a floatcraft 40211