Winston pre-im6 rod question

[Kata2012]

Hi all,

I recently acquired a pre-IM6 Winston and was hoping some one here could help me identify the year of manufacture for the rod.

I am wondering if this would have been manufactured in San Francisco or if it could be a Montana rod, or if there is no way to tell.

The rod is a 9ft, 9wt rod, with no serial numbers on it, a gold Winston cup logo, does list the weight as 3 5/8 oz. And also provides the

The rod sock is lime green and does not list a location on it.* The rod tube has the twin bridges decal on it.

I have attached a number of pictures as well.

Thank you for any help or insight you can provide.

Bryan

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

 

[sweetandsalt]

That may be a transitional rod made in SF but sold from Twin. It would be built on a JK Fisher blank. See cooutlaw's sticky above for some additional details on time frame.

 

[Kata2012]

Thanks for the reply! I did read the sticky and had the same thought about it being a transitional rod as it caries branding form both locations, but was hoping someone could confirm this. Either way, it seems to be a fantastic rod.

 

[cooutlaw]

For what it's worth, from the pictures shown, I would visually speculate that the rod was manufactured in SF and was either part of inventory that was moved to MT and then sold there, or, was made and sold in SF and the tube was replaced at some point with a period correct one after Winston's move to MT. Lastly, it could have been produced in MT right after the move and received a leftover SF Gold Cup Logo.(less likely)

Without a serial number (not unusual for SF rods - less so on MT rods) it would be difficult for even Winston to search log books as to it's production date.

I would further speculate that being part of moved inventory from SF to MT is plausible, as even in SF 9 wt rods were not a popular configuration and likely the few in stock were not fast movers so being part of remaining SF inventory during the move to MT is not unrealistic.

In any event, the sock, rod, and tube are all period correct and appear to be in fine condition, you should be pleased with the acquisition and the rod should bring you pride in ownership. Congrats ! Nice rod.

 

[Kata2012]

Thanks, cooutlaw, I appreciate your insight! This is my first experience with one of the green sticks and I have instantly become interested in the history of this rod and Winston itself. Also, thank you for the Winston history discussion, you are a wealth of knowledge on the subject and really enjoyed reading it.

The only problem I have now is that I can't make up my mind on if I actually want to fish it or just put it on the wall and look at all day long, lol.