I just bought an old Sabre 7' CA6710 20-30# rod which is in great condition. The label says "Custom made in USA California Tackle Co. Carson CA".

I read a bit about the history of Sabre/Calstar here: http://www.onorods.com/calhist.htm

However, I was hoping to learn a bit about this particular model. Does anyone know anything about the 6710? Is it similar to a Calstar 670? What type of fishing would it be good for? I was planning to use it as a 30# livebait rod.

I'm fairly new to saltwater fishing, so any information or advice would be very helpful.

Jeremy

Call Calstar and talk to Leon but he is usually very busy or Pat which is Leon's wife and she is in the office most of the time and has great knowledge about the rods. Also John which is Leon's and Pat's son can give you the info your looking for but he is in and out of the shop. I have a old California Tackle Sabre also a 5010 and when I took another rod to them I brought along the Sabre and all three wanted to see it and they gave me all the info I wanted, which by the way was around when the rod was built.

The rating on my rod is way off, it says 20-50 but this id more of a 15 to 20 lb test rod. I matched it with a Penn Momofil #27 with Neweel spool and added Carbontex drags. Here is a pic of my retro calico bass setup.

Retro with a vengeance, and it looks nice.

I fish with a couple of rods of similar vintage - Fenwick Pacificstiks, #1670 and 1870 (I think those were the numbers). I believe they're Sabre knockoffs, but they're good quality ones (made of "fenglass," anyone else who remembers that name is probably grey of hair too). Good sticks.

I remember when "Fenglass" was brand-new [does that brand me as an old-timer????]
Anyway, the answer to the OP's question is that the numbers he lists are for a "factory stock wrapped" rod made on the 670 blank.
The real old 1970's vintage 670's were good 40-pound rods, but by 1980 they appeared to have 'softened', and were more what would be considered 30-pound rods now.
Everybody from Fenwick to Lamiglass [even Shimano] "knocked off" the stock numbers and copied the actions with varying degrees of accuracy. Of course Cal-Star and Seeker carried the actions over to their current fiberglass lines, and they are still fun rods to fish with. Two additional names that I have only rarely seen in the retrospectives of the rise and fall of Sabre are Mike Stocker, who also had a ton of input on the designs and actions, along with the late legendary Jerry Morris of Hermosa Tackle Box, who helped fine-tune the "tuna actions".