Looking for Pike-Taper

[AggerCane]

Hello in the forum! It's great that you're there! My name is Georg and I live near Cologne. I'm a carpenter by trade and I've been making rods myself for a while after completing a course with Rolf Baginski. All tapers around 7 'grades 3-5. There is a lot of choice here ... I also make hardware and ferrules myself. Now I would like to build a rod for pike fishing and unfortunately I can't find anything on the subject. I would like to build them in 8 ', # 8. Is there anyone who has something that works? I would be very happy about answers! Regards! George

[carl otto]

Georg:

At first blush I would think that a Dickerson 8015 Guide Special would meet your specs, 8'0", 2 piece, 8 weight. I believe one can find the taper in Jack Howells rod building book "The Lovely Reed".

Best of luck on this venture.

German pike......be on guard, .........Georg is coming for you,

Auf-weiderhoren meinen freunden!

Carl Otto

[henkverhaar]

I have a taper that works for me. Haven't used it since moving from the west of the country to the South Limburg area (stone's throw from Aachen), but I am finding some fishing spots locally that should hold pike, so I might be putting it back into service soon...

[AggerCane]

Hello! Thank you for your prompt reply! I browsed the internet for the book ... Very expensive, unfortunately ... I just looked for the taper and read good things about it. That could be something!
One writes:
"The 8015GS is a rocket of an eight weight. I've built a couple of them and love them with SA WF8 XXD lines. They load up well at 40 feet and will shoot the rest of the line with ease. I even used mine to throw a Tenny T350 shooting head.
And if you wanna throw that rocket of an 8015GS into warp speed, built it hollow. I've seen really good, world class casters throw 125 feet at will with that taper. Even I have achieved my maximum distances with a hollow built 8015GS."

Now I have found the following taper:
Butt Tip
0 .379 .238
5 .379 .227
10 .379 .210
15 .360 .199
20 .345 .183
25 .328 .170
30 .312 .156
35 .297 .138
40 .277 .123
45 .258 .105
48 .253 .096
Is there anyone here in the forum who can confirm this? Thank you very much for that!
Georg

[henkverhaar]

Looks more like a standard 8015 to me. The GS is heavier, especially in the tip. Regardless, both are for all intents and purposes, straight tapers. For pike, casting big streamers (like, really air resistant thingies, with loads of water-holding capacity), I would tend to something that slows down in the mid/butt part, some sort of semi-parabolic taper.

[carl otto]

Dickerson 8015 Guide Special taper numbers

0 .096
5 .104
10 .122
15 .137
20 .154
25 .168
30 .181
35 .197
40 .208
45 .225
48 .236

48 .250
50 .257
55 .274
60 .294
65 .309
70 .325
75 .342
80 .353
85 .373
90 .375
95 .375

[henkverhaar]

Interesting. The 8015 in hexrod and 8015 #2 in RodDNA have these numbers, and the 8015 Guide in RodDNA is heavier than that. But hey, I'm not a Dickerson specialist, just reading the numbers...

[mrampant]

I was keen on this rod and wanted a Dickerson in a 7-8 wt as well. When someone mentioned the 8015GS I also looked up the numbers as well, I have "The Lovely Reed" ; the numbers that Carl listed are the same as the book although Howell lists them from the butt end first. So the 45, 48 stations read as :butt- 257, 250. tip- 104, 096. So a 7 thou increase over 3" from ferrule to next station on butt section and 11 thou over 5" to the ferrule on the tip section, which would be easier to accomplish.
How you want to make this is up to you. I think this would make a great rod the way that Carl lists the numbers though the 45-48 station needs some careful consideration. For me, I plan to make a bamboo sleeve and this will overcome the stepping issue, and also plan to hollow as well.
Cheers,
Mark

[carl otto]

Hey, yes the taper came from the Howells book. The way it is listed is different than I am used to so I attempted to list it out tip to butt. On the butt section the 45 inch station is listed at .257, then the 48 inch station as .250. On the tip section the butt at 0 inch station is listed at .236. so at station 45 (.257) to station 50 (.236) is quite a jump of .021 inches and hitting the 15/64 ferrule (.235). Dickerson used step down ferrules.

Now to make things interesting I own and old beat up 8616(?) that only produces smiles on whomever casts it. It throws an 8 WT. with authority with me and is the only rod I have cast out beyond the entire line length into the backing (with a dbl. haul). When you cast it and let go of the line it yanks the reel at any distance demanding more. To say it has power is an understatement. This conversation has spurred me into measuring this thing off. It would be a worthy build for you all looking for a big fish/long cast rod.

Let's see if time presents itself to do this this weekend.

Best to you all,

Carl

[mrampant]

I would be interested in the numbers on that rod as well, Carl. If you feel so inclined to share.
If it has a radical step down, maybe an inch by inch reading over the ferrule area; maybe 10 inches above and below? This would show up where the profile stresses the action.
Did Dickerson hollow any of the rod designs? I would be keen to know.
Cheers,
Mark

[AggerCane]

Hello everybody!

I have now finished the rod. I ended up choosing another taper that Henk kindly gave me.
Think, he designed it specifically for a pike rod. I have to say it works great. The rod is built hollow. Lines up to the backing are easy to handle ... Here is an impression of my work:

https://youtu.be/qKBftN6riJY

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Best whishes to you all,
Georg

[henkverhaar]

Glad it worked out...