PHILLIPSONEARLY YEARS

1947 - 1950

AVAILABLE GRADES

After a failed attempt to buy Granger Rods from Goodwin’s widow, Bill Phillipson started his own company and had rods bearing his name to market by the Spring of 1947—months before Wright & McGill had Granger Rods available. As the Granger Supervisor, Bill Phillipson had intimate knowledge of all the Granger tapers and likely used that knowledge to create his own rod designs that “generated extra power for use on Western rivers”.

The first Phillipson rods that were listed in the original 1947 -1948 Catalog were the Premium, Paramount, Powr Pact and Pacemaker grades. In the 1949 Catalog, Phillipson added the Paragon grade as an “affordable” option to the bottom of the lineup. These rods are easily identified by their black or brown (butterscotch) plastic locking type reel seats.

 The 1950 Catalog announced a major change. Not to the rod lineup, but the reel seats on the Premium, Paramount and Powr Pakt grades changed from plastic to the black or brown anodized “new all-metal ‘no-rock’ locking type reel seat”. The Pacemaker and Paragon grades maintained their black plastic locking type reel seats until the following year.

Rods in the collection