Expert: Joe Douglas - 6/24/2009

Question
This fly rod beonged to my father and was purchased probably over 50 years ago. It has Mohawk and Rainbow written on it. It is a two piece rod with cork handle and reel seat above the handle. What would this rod be worth.

Answer
Hi David,

I've seen several questions recently on the Mohawk and have finally found a few references to the rods.  I must admit that I may have soem earlier answers that sounded confused about these rods.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation on them available.

Horrocks-Ibbotson made the Mohawk model in both fly rod and spinning rod styles and they appear to have made various sub-models of the Mohawk, for example the Rainbow sub-model.  These are fiberglass rods, not a high collector value on them.

Are you certain this is a fly rod?  With the reel seat above the cork handle it sounds more like the spinning rod configuration.  The Mohawk Rainbow references that I have seen are for fly rods, but your description makes it sound like they may also have used this sub-model for spinning rods.

It has little to no effect on value, but would help me keep the different models and sub-models straight.

In Good-Very Good condition this rod would be valued in the $15-$25 range.

Thanks,  Joe