TLDR: Do vintage Ugly Stiks get brittle over time?
So after an unexpected and fairly emotional turn of events, I ended up acquiring my Grandpa's old Ugly Stik. I didn't know until I got home with a couple of old fishing rods that my grandpa sold me that one of them was the one that he ALWAYS used when I fished with him as a kid. He always had a pile of rods and reels in his basement and I figured that I had just grabbed a couple of the ones that were always lost in the mix. I first inspected the reel (an old Mitchell 300A). It spins smoothly and everything is in working order. I opened it up to find it nicely packed with grease an in good shape. I decided to put it back together and replace the line. Once I was done with that, I turned my attention to the Ugly Stik. I wiped the cobwebs off and admired the very well used reel-end. Then I got to the tip and noticed a piece of tape (doesn't look like a repair, just a small wrap of orange tape) and I remembered seeing that as a little kid and it all came flooding back. I've seen him catch literally hundreds of fish on this rod. Trout (rainbrow, brown and one big brute rainbow), catfish, perch, bluegill… even a sturgeon and a red bellied pirhana (Many people roll their eyes at the last two, but the lake is fed by a river and it is in town, so people have dropped who knows what in there.. including at least one pirhana). I would love to make this my regular rod, but I would like some advice on the durability of vintage ugly stiks. I know these are touted as unbreakable (and this one has proven to live up to that claim) but do they get brittle with age? It seems to still flex easily, bit I haven't bent it far. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thnks!
Posted by clevenb