other makers 1930-1970

Carter and Son of Glen Huntly

Peter Wilson writes that W. Carter & Son of Glen Huntly, Melbourne, makers of bamboo fly and spinning rods, were the only makers to split their own cane, Bill Carter building a machine for this in 1950. They sold finished rods and cane blanks – fly and surf. Two Carters’ bamboo fly rods were the Walton and the Rockford, sold from its Fishing Sports Store at Carnegie, Melbourne. Bill Carter had been workshop manager at the Melbourne sporting goods store Hartleys in the 1930s.

Carters stopped producing bamboo rods in the mid-60s, when the cheapness of fibreglass forced them out of production. After Bill Carter’s death his son Bill continued to run the business for some years. When it closed, Compleat Angler in Melbourne bought up the remaining bamboo rods and blanks, and on-sold some of them.

Examples of Carter & Son bamboo fly rods have not been easily found during the research. The Australian Fly Fishing Museum holds one example in their collection, the 2/5 Fly Rod and images of it are shown below. 

Another beautiful example of a Carter rod is The Princess, 8'4" 2-piece for DT5 line, recorded by Tony Mockunas of the Red Tag Fly Fishers' Club - images of it are shown below.

A third rod, probably made from a Carter blank is also illustrated. Interestingly, this rod, 8’8” for a #6 line, is another example of a staggered ferrule rod; it has the same length and weight as a Sharpes Eighty-Eight  and could have been modelled on it. 

The search for other Carter rods continues.

‘Jim’ Jarvis Walker

Jim Walker founded the Jarvis Walker company in 1946 at 52 Whitehorse Road, Deepdene, Victoria, to make affordable fishing reels and rods.

He designed and made his own machine to make split cane rods. We have an image of one example: the Oslo fly rod, 8’6” 3-piece, described as a “good utility article, priced at £5/15/ 15/--, a rod that will fish wet or dry fly, a grasshopper, or mudeye equally as well, and the maker will certify its durability.” 

Initially, all Jarvis Walker rods had the name stamped into the butt with a hot iron.

The company was one of the earliest Australian manufacturers of fibreglass rods, from 1963. As far as we can establish, bamboo rod production ceased from then.

Bluey Powell

Bluey Powell started out working for Stoneys in Ringwood, then headed up the fishing tackle department at Myer department store and came to the Compleat Angler in 1968, just after the move to McKillop Street from East Melbourne. A somewhat larger than life character, he made rods on the top floor of the McKillop St store and served on the counter during lunchtimes. He later ran his own tackle business, Bluey Powell’s Rod Shop, in Russell Street, Melbourne. After he had a heart attack and died, his son Julian ran it for some years before it closed down.

Bluey was also a superb caster, who competed at several Victorian and Australian casting championships. With those he liked, Bluey was generous with his time in helping them with their rod making, casting and fishing. 

One reminiscence[2] captures the character of Bluey well:

“The fly-fishing section of the sporting goods department of Myers was located just beside the steps on the ground floor in Lonsdale Street and was managed by a loud, florid faced man who confronted customers in a pompous voice if they were at all indecisive. His name was Bluey Powell.

“Bluey was an engaging wit who could be cultured and charming as easily as he could be confronting. He was immensely generous, and Rick and I immediately fell under his influence.

“We had never been able to afford a purpose-built fly rod, so our early efforts had been doomed to failure through inadequate tackle. Bluey soon put a stop to that. When we handled beautifully crafted Hardy rods and shuddered at their price tags, he saw two young men trying to survive in Melbourne on studentship allowances and he took the rods from us, placing them back in the racks. That night we were at his home planing blanks he had selected for us from his vast store of Tonkin Cane under the house, in his workshop.

“Reel seats and corks were glued, ferrules fitted and a couple of nights later, the snake guides were wrapped and varnished. I still have the first cane rod I ever made. It was every bit as good as the big soft wands that Hardy made because its firm action suited Australian conditions better.

“It cost a fraction of the price. Suitably armed, Rick and I were ready to join the battle. We were instant purists. Nothing would do until we could catch every rising fish we had seen in our youth and any that dared to rise in our presence from that moment onwards.

“Never again did we resort to bait or lure; it was fly or die.

“Bluey conducted casting classes each Saturday morning, free to anyone who cared to join him on Ringwood Lake. We learned more in one morning than we thought possible. I remember the thrill of double hauling a full line for the first time. Rick and I joined him on trips to the Western District lakes and he joined us on the Goulburn and all the surrounding waters.

“In a short space of time, we had made the Quantum Leap.

“From this point it was constant discovery. Every time we got away fishing, the learning curve became steeper. We honed our skill, improved our gear, tied our own flies, studied the sub aquatic stream life and related it to the activity of the fish.

“One example was nymph fishing. Bluey had taken a massive rainbow of about eight pounds out of Lake Linlithgow before our eyes. Twitching a damsel fly nymph alongside a weed bed. There had not been a movement. He had fished it blind to a likely spot. This was the apex of the art, the pinnacle of all skill. He had produced a specimen fish that made the most imperceptible take, a tiny twitch of the leader. Bluey had struck him, holding his head up to keep him out of the weed and played him to a standstill in a small bay choked with hazards.”

We have one example of a Bluey Powell rod, a 9ft 2-piece, for a #6 line. Purchased from his estate, it is unsigned. 'Short Casts' in the Autumn 2023 edition of FlyLife has a delightful reminiscence of Bluey by Dennis Carter, in which he mentions a Coronet split cane rod Bluey made for him, inscribed BUILT FOR DENNIS CARTER DECEMBER '65.

Len Butterworth (1919-2009)

Len Butterworth made mainly surf rods, carrying the ‘Pastime’ label, for which he bought some cane rod blanks from rod maker Bill Southam in Sydney. We are unsure if he also made fly rods. From 1939, Len made split cane rods from a shed at his home in Coorparoo, Brisbane, and he caught trams, his rods wrapped in newspapers, to sell them at tackle stores in Brisbane. 

An international cane shortage following World War II and the Korean War forced rod-makers to trial fibreglass. Len was one of the earliest manufacturers of quality fibreglass rods. He began producing solid glass in the late 1950s, and in 1976 he set up the first Australian tubular glass factory in Stanley Street, Brisbane, producing solid glass rod blanks. The rights to the Len Butterworth name were bought by Jarvis Walker in 1980.

[2] Excerpt from 'One More Cast', a short story published by the Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre, 8 March 2017.