FLYMPH FORUM

I remember watching David James Duncan's 'Trout Grass' several years ago at a TU meeting in NH. I've always been fascinated by the culture surrounding bamboo, but apparently not fascinated enough to buy one of my own. My only experience with working with it comes from the old gnarled Montague's that I tore down and turned into nice little ice fishing jig rods and short, 5', small stream spinning rods that I gave away.

I've caned quite a few trout over the years, and a great taper is a thing of beauty. For me, it's difficult to decide which is more beautiful ... the trout, the rod, or the setting





Fortunately, it's not a competition.

I have 4 or 5 grahite rods and I do fish them but I also have 12+ bamboo rods that I also fish. Years ago, I found that I seem to have a better "feel / touch" when a trout first takes my fly on a bamboo rod and when landing the fish, I seem to feel more of the fish's "movements".

For awhile, I thought it was my imagination but then I gave a few of my "excess cane rods" to my main fishing buddies and after a few times they fished the cane rods, they started to agree with me. One of the guys then got rid of most of his graphite rods (kept a couple 30+ year old rods) and now exclusively fishes one of my bamboo rods when we go out.

I'm often reminded of one of John Gierach's books "Standing in a River Waving a Stick" when standing in a river, fishing downstream with a cane rod and a soft hackle!

PS - Re: giving away some of my cane rods, years ago, I was able to buy quite a few Partridge of Redditch cane rod blanks for reasonable prices and I assembled these impregnated blanks into various sized rods, weights, usually 4 or 5 weights. Fished these rods for several years before deciding that I needed to thin out the herd and let some of my buddies enjoy these rods.

joaniebo wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 9:55 am
PS - Re: giving away some of my cane rods, years ago, I was able to buy quite a few Partridge of Redditch cane rod blanks for reasonable prices and I assembled these impregnated blanks into various sized rods, weights, usually 4 or 5 weights. Fished these rods for several years before deciding that I needed to thin out the herd and let some of my buddies enjoy these rods.

What an exceptionally generous thing to do, Bob. Kudos to you!

A member of this forum by the name of Ruard Janssen who lives in Holland has, over the past few years, built cane rods from scratch for some of us. Bamboo is indeed special in more ways than one.

I fished my Pennington 8’ and a pair of soft hackles all day today. Beautiful day, caught a lot of fish. Also bought myself a Christmas present- 1930’s Heddon 35 Deluxe, 8 1/2’, 1 3/4F. Along with a sweet old British made reel. I too am becoming a bamboo nut. Not many 30-somethings out there fishing bamboo!

There's lots of things not shown in this video that likely takes place even in their batch mechanical process of making a cane rod.

I don't make them in batches and all my work is hand work. This includes planing, straightening, etc. But one thing I don't do is produce strips by saw circular or band saw. I hand split my strips and use one culm of bamboo for a rod. I have no intention of mechanising the process, I'd rather do it by hand.

I also make rods as individuals, cane, cane colour, silk and reel seats, timber and metal styles are carefully matched for performance and aesthetics. These are made to go together.

After time I have left over strips which I mark and put aside in case I need them for repairs.

However, some strips are not needed for repair and over time they accumulate so I bundle matched strips and make experimental rods or some of my own rods.

Today's hand made rods by most hobbyists are far superior to production rods of past eras. Of that there is no doubt, in my mind at least.

But having said that production rods are perfectly suitable fishing tools and can be a source of proud ownership.

PhilA wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 9:36 pm I've caned quite a few trout over the years, and a great taper is a thing of beauty. For me, it's difficult to decide which is more beautiful ... the trout, the rod, or the setting





Fortunately, it's not a competition.

Nicely put, Phil!

Some here have seen this before, but it fits nicely into this thread. The stream was Spring Creek in central PA and the cane was gifted by the late Mark Romero ...

tie2fish wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:45 pm Some here have seen this before, but it fits nicely into this thread. The stream was Spring Creek in central PA and the cane was gifted by the late Mark Romero ...

On Mark's Cane Spring Creek ~ May 2015.jpg

Nice brownie

tie2fish wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:45 pm Some here have seen this before, but it fits nicely into this thread. The stream was Spring Creek in central PA and the cane was gifted by the late Mark Romero ...


On Mark's Cane Spring Creek ~ May 2015.jpg

Bill, this looks like a trout I saw once in the Old Farts pool. Probably the same one.