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gearboy wrote:

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Doc, #11,959 was the last Winston made blank by Fisher, 10/30/88. Loomis made them until #43,500 about '94/'95.

Aren't those serial numbers for Winston graphite rods?

Johnson's Fiberglass Fly Rods book says, "Winston utiized fiberglass blanks from several quality manufacturers early on, but quickly decided to standardize with Fisher blanks. Merrick worked closely with Fisher in designing the tapers and blanks."

The book also says, "Winston did not immediately start into fiberglass when it became popular. It was content to continue building the famous bamboo rods. When it did start into fiberglass, as in the case of their bamboo rods, it was dedicated to making the best fiberglass rods it could-not necessarily a lot of them. In fact, Doug Merrick estimated Winston only made 3,000 to 4,000 fiberglass rods in San Francisco. It made only one grade of fiberglass rods as Merrick thought that a Winston was a Winston in his mind."

Winston Fiberglass rods were included in their 1968 catalog. That catalog says that Winston had started experimenting with fiberglass fly rods in the early 1950s, but were not happy with any of the existing tapers so developed their own. I don't see anywhere where it says when Winston first started marketing fiberglass fly rods. Around 1964 two of the Fishers called on Winston trying to convince Doug Merrick to use Fisher fiberglass blanks, so perhaps it was some time before 1964.