Durability of Winn Grips

[Susitnasalmonguide]

I've been installing Winn Grips -- in particular as the rear grip of most rods I have been building this fall. In the thread about possibly installing grips using 2-sided tape there was a mention of Winn Grips wearing out and needing to be replaced. What are the experiences of other builders on this forum? Are other people having durability issues with Winn Grips -- can I expect this is something I will have to deal with on the rods I built? If so, any idea how long the grips might last if fished on a daily basis?

Thanks for your additional thoughts,

Susitnasalmongguide

[RMCatchNrelease]

I made that comment in the thread mentioned.

In my experience, golf only, Winn grips do not last. They may feel great when new, but ask me a year later how they are holding up. The golf swing is much more demanding of a grip, but I just have my doubts. I still like the feel on a putter grip, but even those need replacing ever two years or so from going in and out of the bag.

Here is a golf forum discussing Winn grip durability (hope this is cool):
http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/109 ... urability/

I have 10+ year old rods and the cork is just like I left it. In my opinion, a Winn grip would have dried, cracked, and crumbled many years prior.

[Susitnasalmonguide]

Thanks for the reply -- continues my wondering how long the Winn Grips will last on my rods. I built a bunch with Winn Grips hoping they would be more durable than corker and also might look cleaner than old cork. I'm now planning to wait a while and see how well the present grip on my rods hold up before purchasing something else. Thank you for the reply and forum string.



Susitnasalmonguide

[Black Haze]

I put several winn grips on my rods

[Mattman]

I put several winn grips on my rods before last season, replacing a cork split grip for a full winn grip... and they all look like crap now......never again

Could you elaborate a little more please? Or post a photo or two?

I've not been able to get behind them just because I wasn't convinced that they would be a good solution. I get a fair amount of inquiries on them though and just don't have any real world feedback.

[Black Haze]

I put several winn grips on my rods before last season, replacing a cork split grip for a full winn grip... and they all look like crap now......never again

Could you elaborate a little more please? Or post a photo or two?

I've not been able to get behind them just because I wasn't convinced that they would be a good solution. I get a fair amount of inquiries on them though and just don't have any real world feedback.

I really loved the feel of the Winn grips and they look great when I put them on.....and they still feel wonderful, but I just feel they should wear better....I guess I cant expect them to wear like cork, but they just look worn now(only about 6 months of use and I didn't use these rods a ton)......I will try and get around and post a couple pics.....

[dirtygeary]

Speaking as a golfer and a golf grip installer. All Winn grips begin to wear down with use at a faster rate than normal rubber grips. In golf this expected since you change grips on average once a year. With regular usage. I can't say the rod grips are identical, but I bet they are. And with wet/dry and sunlight, you will have the same issue(as golf). I call it rotting. That's what it looks like anyway.

[RMCatchNrelease]

I was interested in the Hammer rods from Tackle Trap, but the winn grips kept me away. I see expensive fly rods with them and all I can think is how worn out the area where my thumb rests would become. My experience with their golf grips leaves me zero confidence they would hold up over time.

[JDLaman]

Here is a picture of a Winn Grip on my 7' MH Hammer Rod. I have owned this rod for a year and have fished it hard throughout the year. I have caught 100s of Redfish on this rod and the grip looks to be holding up great to me.

Winn.jpg (19.48 KiB) Viewed 8190 times

Winn b.jpg (21.35 KiB) Viewed 8190 times

Winn c.jpg (18.53 KiB) Viewed 8190 times

[Mattman]

Here is a picture of a Winn Grip on my 7' MH Hammer Rod. I have owned this rod for a year and have fished it hard throughout the year. I have caught 100s of Redfish on this rod and the grip looks to be holding up great to me.

Thanks for the pics and the thoughts.

So...if you were ordering another custom rod from me today, would Winn Grips be on the build specs? How do you rank them in your choices of grip material?

[JDLaman]

Good to hear from you Matt. Hope you and your family are doing well!

I like Winn grips but don't think I would include one in the build specs on one of your customs because I feel it would detract from the overall aesthetic and my applications for the rod. I own 5 customs built by Matt and they are all works of art to me. All of my customs are built with Matt's burl cork grips. They look great and function perfect for my topwater and light plastics applications for Redfish and Speckled trout.

The Hammer rod shown in the pictures I posted is used strictly for fishing plastics under large popping corks. When I'm fishing topwaters or light plastics, most of my hand is palming the reel with very little touching the grip so the feel of the grip material is not that important to me for those applications. Lightweight and looks is what I like for those applications.

When fishing the popping cork rig, I'm popping the cork almost all the way back to the boat and usually have more of my hand on the grip as opposed to palming the reel so the Winn grip feels very good for that application. It feels nice and tacky to me and is comfortable when giving a large very resistant popping cork a big pop to call in a Red or a trout.

I couldn't envision having a custom built strictly for throwing popping cork rigs, so I couldn't see ever having a Winn grip on one of your custom rods.

If I had to rank grips, I would rank them overall as follows:

1. Burl Cork
2. NFC Carbon Fiber (I have one of these on a custom NFC built for me on one of their HM SSP blanks), very sensitive but to me can be very slick if fishing with gloves.
3. Winn Grip

Winn grips are good in my opinion and I have not experienced any of the problems other posters have, but they are very technique specific for me and work very well for my popping cork rig.

[Susitnasalmonguide]

I appreciate each person sharing on this post -- and will likely have a much stronger opinion on how durable / good looking Winn grips are after a summer of use on my salmon charters. I did have 3 rods that I installed Winn Grips too on some of my salmon charters last summer and those handles still look great -- however we did not fish those 3 rods very much. Rods I put Winn Grips on for the coming summer are built on blanks I use much more of the time, so I expect to use them nearly everyday for about 100 days. Should be a thorough test by the end of the summer.

I definitely enjoy both the look and feel of Winn Grips on the rods where I have installed them. Depending upon how well they last through the summer -- I will likely put more on additional rods if they do well --- or I would likely switch back to using regular cork if wear is such that I have to replace grips after only one season of commercial use. The looks and feel of my rods is one of the first impressions guests have of my guide business and I want that impression to remain a positive one.

Susitnasalmonguide

[Mattman]

Good to hear from you Matt. Hope you and your family are doing well!

I hope things are well with you too!

Thanks very much for the detailed response. Greatly appreciated.

[RMCatchNrelease]

Good to hear the positive feedback. I always loved feel of the Winn materials. May have to give one of those Hammers a shot.

[drift123]

In golf Winn could easily win the comfort vote. I liked the idea of these for fishing