Vintage Gene Bullard custom built Silaflex/Heddon Pal casting rod near mint, early 1960s

Posted by Garrett Lyang

What you see here is one of the last remaining custom rods built by Gene Bullard and it is definitely the nicest one in existance. I’m not boasting btw, the reason it looks so great is that it was only used once and has sat in a cloth lined metal tube since 1962. I want to thank Tom for posting the series of articles Gene did back in 2006 because I had been trying to get more information about this rod for over 20 years and striking out. Those articles were extremely helpful to me. The only information my father had for me when he first revealed the rod to me in 2001 was that the entire rod cost $150 and the wrap job alone was $100 in 1962 which Gene actually stated and talked about in those articles. Tom was nice enough to refer me to Vic Cutter who probably spent more time with Gene than anyone and when I emailed him the pictures he not only verified this is indeed Gene’s work but he was able to tellit was early 1960s. I don’t know anything about custom wrapping so it was over my head. Talking to Vic was great and a real treat but even before talking to him I was 99% sure it was built by Gene based on: In the articles when Gene is talking about the period where he felt he did his best work he stated he build all of his rods from 1 of Silalflex Blanks- the T3, T5, BC60F, BC60FH and the 116. Usually he would use Featherweight pistol grip handles but when he could get his hands on them he would use Heddon Pal pistol grip handles. He also mentioned how he came up with mailing his rods in metal tubes, it was cheap to do it and it basically reduced rod breakage. As I had mentioned earlier he talked about how he sold a vanilla rod for $50 and an outstanding one for $150. Again this is what was paid for the rod originally. So the Silaflex is a BC60F and it uses the much rarer and superior Heddon Pal pistol grip. If you look at the wrap job there was nobody at the time who could make anything remotely like this and it was well preserved in the metal tube he described. FYI said metal tube is under the army green cover you see in the photo that also has a pouch to hold the Heddon Pal handle I’m asking $2,200 Feel free to email me with any questions you have.

Send Garrett Lyang an Email