JC Higgins

Question
I recently acquired a JC Higgins 3017 rod. The rod has two guides opposite each other attached half way on the rods length, these are the only guides on the rod aside from the tip. The rod is 6ft in length and made of bamboo. What was the rod used for and how would it be rigged?
Thanks
Don

Answer
Hi Don,

You have a old boat rod made for saltwater bottom fishing.  The split bamboo rods made for Sears and labeled JC Higgins were either made by Horrocks-Ibbotson or Montague...sorry I don't recall exactly which and my reference books are not with me at the moment.  There is not a huge collector following, or value, for these rods...but it has been increasing fairly steadily over the past few years as people find them and want to renew the old technology.  We have been doing more reconditioning work on this type of rod in the past 2-3 years.  Depending on actual condition the rod is likely valued in the $25-$100 range.

When you do a lot of fishing with a bamboo rod of this type, especially a lot of fishing where the fish are pretty good size, what is called a set or curve in the rod shaft can develop. This rod should have a tiptop guide that accepts line from both sides.  The purpose of the two guides located exactly opposite each other half way up the rod shaft is to allow you to be able to turn the rod shaft over every now and then and fish the other side.  The notion here is that turning it will keep the set from developing only in one direction and will tend to keep the rod shaft straight.  It works fairly well.

The reel seat is also a ferrule which allows you to take the rod apart and rotate the shaft then slide the ferrule back together to fish the opposite side.  You only rig the line through the guide on the side you are fishing and then the tiptop...the other guide is used when you rotate the shaft.  You will want to use a level wind reel...maybe a vintage Penn or Ocean City to look good.

Another thing that would help the rod is more guides.  When it was made, the minimal number of guides that could be used were installed (in this case 1 pair) to keep the price as low as possible.  To adequately distribute the load over the rod shaft and improve performance the addition of more guides (on each side of course) would be appropriate.  This would change the original rod but would definitely improve performance.

These old boat rods are very good for saltwater bottom fishing and they are also good for fresh water fishing for larger species like catfish and sturgeon.

Thanks,  Joe