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Hi Guys, you have found one of my favorite little Conolons for fishing under cover while walking the river, you hit it on the nail as far as casting, it's excellent for 20-40ft casts. This little rod began life around 1965 as the model 2027 of the Deluxe, thats right the later to be 5 star line of Garcia Conolon rods. The first listing and rod is a natural finish tabbacco brown glass rod with brown and gold wraps, two pieces 6 1/2ft and then listed as HDH, wieght give as 3 oz, one stripper and 5 snake guides, machined brass ferrule, the rod only being in production that one year, I have one I will have to post some pictures. Next came the light brown with cream under the wraps for trim and a foil signature wrap in 1966, the ferrule is changed to long used brass plated and total overwrapped model that Conolon used for decades. Eye placement is the same, number of eyes the same, however this time its called the model 2535 B (marketing seems to have been drawn to Bass fisherman and drawn away from trout marketing that year) and listed as for HCH lines, same rod same taper, feels identical to me now its in the brown series, fourth in line from the top (Custom, Deluxe, Gold, brown, blue, green, black). In 1967 it undergoes another change, strickly a color thing to a darker brown, I like this color and I guess Garcia did too they kept it threw many years of brown series rod production. Anyway as the 1967 model its given the model number 2535 C again listed as HCH, but also shows the new 6wt line size too. Again guide placement, number of guides and ferrule are the same as the previous year. Taper is the same for all three years. In 1968 the marketing stays the same rod stays the same but its now called a dry fly action and lists 6F 7S as its designated line sizes. In 1969 its called the 2535 D, now its listed as dry fly action strickly as a 6wt, same number of guides, same guide placement, same taper, same ferrule. In 1970 the year of the introduction of the Wulff rod the Custom series of rods is dropped, the Wulff and Ritz becomming the premier Custom rods of Garcia Conolon. That same year the star rating series is adopted. the brown series becomes the 3 star rods, (Deluxe being 5 star, Gold being 4 star). Our little shorty morfs again, this time its had a face lift, it now sports a staggered ferrule, a nice agate stripper being just below the same ferrule as before, however guide spacing, number of guides stays exactly the same, the big change is that all the snakes are in the tip section and the ferrule is moved down three inches, but it does improve the rods action quite a bit not having that big long ferrule in the middle of the rod. They did this to the brown series big brothers too, a major improvement in felt action on those rods as well. Our little rod is now called the 2535 D with three stars. In 1971 it was continued to be marketed but not produced from the 1970 model. In 1972 it was dropped from the line when the whole model system went under a consolidation, the brown rods became the 4 star and gold four star rods were incorperated in a new 5 star combined group.
Its one of my favorite little rods, they seem to turn up time to time with little interest so often you can pick them up for under $50. Watch for condition though, they seem to run either near mint closet examples, or really well fished ones that should be avoided. The taper is not the same as any of the Wulff series, they had their own special Master blanks with built up ferruling stations for the internal stainless steel ferrules, however the two piece Wulffs seem to share the same Master Blanks as the late 4 and 5 star two piece rods with internal s.s. spigot ferrule.
Because of their low cost I like these little rods alot for walking the slimmy rocks of the river bed while working in under the undergrouth to find the pocketwater and pools. Fun little rod that works equally well for just about every gamefish and line style. I carry mine with the reel spooled with s 6wt floating sinking tip mostly but have a spool with a vintage Wulff tt7floating and yes Joe, a Sinking 7wt LL hahaha, your not the first to find it makes a neat little boat (canoe, etc) rod.
Richard

Good Easter Morning,
Hi Dudley, well because of their low cost and the fact it seems they were either closet rods or rods really used for hard fishing, the ones Im referring to tend to need new ferrules and rewraps, as such they are just not cost effiecent to buy right now unless you can pick them up for under $10, just because near mint ones can be had on an annual basis still for around $50. These rods are the forerunners of the conolon rods for short handy tools, and guys who knew that really got their money worth.
Hi Keith, Actually the very first rod, the 5 star Deluxe to be series, the 2027 most likely in 1965 had a decal with a T suffex, however not all rods had the rod model number decal, mine doesn't. I have seen one with that suffex though. Because they were the only short rod ever produced at that point in time by Conolon and they were part of the Deluxe line and called a pack rod along with the 4 piece 2040, they were quite expensive. The 2040 I have from that year has the model decal and T suffex, the 2025 and 2026 I have from 1965 all have the model decals and T suffex. The much more premium Custom models from 1965 both the 8 1/2ft 6wt and the 9ft 7/8wt both have T suffex's, The 2000 series models with decals from 1964 I have have the model decals and T suffex's however the only year a 6 1/2ft rod in the 2000 series Deluxe rods was produced was 1965 and mine doesn't have the model decal and doesn't look like it ever did as to where it would be located.
The 2535 came out in 1966 as part of the brown lineup and started with the B suffex, at least from the catalogues I have and the examples I have. Although Conolon did produce alot of rods as OEM for alot of sporting goods retailers, so its quite possible that a 2535T is out there, logic would dictate it would have been made the next model year (1966 brown series) after a retailer had ordered based on the 2027T he had seen as a salesmans sample. Ive seen that alot in OEM stuff that Conolon made, thats a pattern that goes back to around 1962 when Garcia took complete charge and started their catalogues, and continues right up to 1981 when some of the 81 catalogue rods carried over into 1982 as OEM retailer models just before the factories closing.
Richard

PS for Keith, the bread and butter rod for Garcia Conolon from 1963 onward was the brown series, in that series the 7ft 10in rod, of which we chatted quite abit about perhaps a year ago had a T suffex, the 2537T. A very fine Trout rod rated 6/7wt. The late model 2537D had that same staggered ferrule and was the best of the litter with the Elgin Agate stripping guide as well.

Well I remember what Lee Wulff would do alot and how he related the relative value of the reel in the overall picture of tackle. Somehow when a guy puts the reel in his pocket and goes fishing that pretty well puts the reel in proper perspective. Everything in the chain of fishing came before the reel in Wulff's Opinion. I know when I grab one of those little shorty Garcia's to go slip and slide threw the mossy rocks and slick clay based banks I put whatever reel I have available that was low cost, works and catches fish on. If something happens IM gonna toss the rig and look for it later while I save myself next time. On the other hand my 1 and 2wt graphite midge and nymphing rods for winter have some pretty pricey reels, as do all the remaining graphite rods I still have. Crazy as it seems, it doesn't hurt near as much to put a $600 reel on a $700 rod, but its like squeezing a nickle for change to get us to unload alot of big bucks for best quality cain and glass era reels to put on our glass. Guys that are into bamboo seem to be far more willing to cross the line. About half my glass rods have what I consider to be great reels, like the Marryats and Forbes etc, but those are amoung my best glass rods too, not ones Im about to distroy on the next slidy walk in the river. Guess what Im saying is I like the good stuff, just have always seemed to like the better period reels on good bamboo and the better modern reels on graphite. Glass at least the moderately priced stuff gets the blue collar reels mostly, and alot of them work just as good as the jewelry for men models. Ive fished some big Salmon and such both on bamboo with some of those big Young twin pawls with big adjustable drags and on glass with some equally big Martin disc brake models and both have the works to put the brakes on a downhil bound freight train. I used to fish one of my first glass rods, a conolon (8ft 6/7wt) with an equally period hardy knockoff (like the heddon daisy's etc, a 3 1/2 inch) one of the Garcia GK-44 reels for really big Spanish Mackeral and Bonita along the California offshore coast, those tuna family guys would run run run, it was kinda fun hearing that pawl system screem while they stripped the reel until they finally turned. Wish today I have been more savy and had picked up a period Young mutipliers for those long retrieves after then turned and headed back or just as good a Young Landex so my knuckles wouldn't get so bruised during the run. Wonder if anyone ever made an anti reverse multiplier?
Richard
Richard