I've always been drawn to bamboo. Even before I started fly fishing, I was enamored with the craftsmanship of the rods and the tradition surrounding them. When I fish with them, I feel like I'm in a black and white picture. There is a connection to the past and I feel obligated to be wearing wool and tweed. I really need to buy some tweed.
I guess I'm this way about most things handmade. It takes passion, and commitment to produce something that looks good enough to be art yet functions at a high level. Very little has changed in the last 50 years about them. There have been some aesthetic changes and some tapers added but not much else.
My life as a fisherman started out with bamboo. Like most kids in the South, I fished with a cane pole, a bobber, and a worm attached to the end. Pretty far away from the classic rods which have been used in the New England area and Europe for over 200 years.
I spent a summer fishing with nothing but a bamboo rod. I was living in Colorado and was mainly fishing high altitude lakes so a short six foot rod wasn't the ideal choice. But I never seemed to mind. I was having so much run fighting fish on that little thing that I never much thought how nice it would be to get an extra 15 feet out of a cast.
One of my favorite things about a bamboo rod is that you feel so much more connected to the fish. You can feel the fight all the way down in the handle. Every run and every head shake are transmitted clearly to the fibers. It feels more like an extension of your arm than a fly rod. I can understand why so many bamboo rod fishers refer to it as alive. This became more pronounced when I took my 9 ft 5wt graphite rod. It's a slower action rod, but man did I feel disconnected from that broomstick!
Another draw to bamboo is everything it takes to make a rod. From harvesting the culms, heating them, splitting them, planning them, gluing, and wrapping. From start to finish most rod builders can complete the process in 40 hours. It's a process that takes dedication and attention to detail, much like what is required to fish for trout.
If you've never fished with a bamboo fly rod, do yourself a favor and buy a cheap one, borrow one from a buddy, even try a glass rod. You will be hooked!
Richard Templeton
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