Browning Silaflex Grafite Fly Rod

Question
Joe-I have two Browning Grafite Silaflex Fly rods-broke the tips on both of them - they were from the 1970s - any help on who makes these rods so that I might possibly get a replacement tip - Thanks very much for you time- Randy

Answer
Hi Randy,

Looks like these rods were made only in 1976/1977.  They should be glossy black blanks, black wraps with white trim and a black aluminum skeleton reel seat.  But you know that.

Browning sold the rod building portion of their business to Zebco around 1989-1990.  I suppose you could try Zebco as a starting point.  It may prove difficult to find replacments for rods this old.

Bass Pro Shops currently sells fiberglass spinning and casting rods with the Silaflex name.  I assume these are made for them by Zebco or whoever currently owns the name; if that is not Zebco.

The link below will take you to the fiberglass fly rod forum where I found this information.  I find this site to be generally pretty reliable.  It's worth the same as my advice...what you paid for it...but it will give you plenty of items to research.

http://fiberglass-fly-rods.pbworks.com/Silaflex

Should you be unable to obtain new tip sections, you might want to contact a local rod builder and ask about repairing the broken tips.

Good luck.

Thanks,  Joe