I have definitely been listening to way too much Geirach while driving because I really want a bamboo flyrod. Anyone fish them? What make do you have? I have been following a rodmaker on IG and might start saving my pennies for a build. Winstons are way out of my price range. A lot of the smaller rod builders I am seeing are making rods that go for around $1200. Without firsthand knowledge of the maker, casting their rods, etc how do you know if their rods are worth the $$? Anyone have any recommendations for craftsmen to check out?

Tightlines.

Following. Those cane poles have always caught my attention. You gotta be one bad Motherlover having the skill to make one and make it right.

True. There is a ton of knowledge that goes into it. So many variables, even down to the types of glue used, the relative humidity of the climate where the bamboo is stored, etc etc etc.

Form what I understand though is if I buy one I will catch more fish, look sexier doing it, and be an overall better, more handsome, and capable angler.

Well, if you're gonna buy one. Buy the best you can. I bought two $1000 each of spinning reels. Both Daiwa and Shimano. It makes a difference. Even though it'll take me a decade to catch $2000 in fish. But that's not the point. It's nice having nice things.

I completely understand your line of thinking.

There are a lot of custom bamboo rodsmiths; due diligence is required in research. Although I have no personal experience with them, Oyster Rod Company, in Blue Ridge, Georgia, conducts classes in which you build your own. I've heard stellar reports about their shop and classes, and the owner, Bill Oyster, is reputed to be a premier bamboo rodsmith with a lifetime of experience and knowledge to share with the students. If I wasn't on a fixed income I'd sign up today. I think that it'd be a huge thrill to fish a bamboo rod that I'd built down here in the Lower Laguna. If you don't have the time or temperament to build your own, I'd check with some of the local fly shops; I wouldn't know who to recommend or why as far as which builder offers the best rods or the best deals. I have over a dozen fly rods that I use regularly; I doubt I paid more than $450 for any of them.

Making them, that's a rabbit hole in this day and age. You'll end up spending more in tools then the rod would cost.

I've browsed the vintage bamboo fly rods late at night. Seeing what's up. Then, what's the modern equivalent? Some folks pay big money for handmade bamboo rods. The craftsmanship that it takes to build one to where it's a perfectly smooth bend in it. Splitting bamboo into long slivers trying to pull that off? Exquisite.


I'm fixed income. It just means you gotta save up for longer. To a point. Because some of the high end are priced as such. Big money.

If you have the money to spend, get what you want. Bamboo rods cast differently than other rods and they can break. I am hard on my equipment and don’t care how it looks as long as I catch fish. Other angles really enjoy the feel and look of their equipment. I don’t believe expensive rods will catch more fish, but you will look better fishing with them. I was the IGFA All-tackle Length fly angler of the year last year and caught most of my fly fishing world records with an old Browning fly rod with an off-brand freedom fly reel I got off eBay for $0.99.

The Oyster class isn't cheap, but all tools are provided. You're borrowing them, not buying them.

Defiantly Art

https://oysterbamboo.com/products/o...X-ZKeigMVfkX_AR2Fagn0EAQYBCABEgJwbvD_BwE

I used to drive down to Houston for the Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival every year if I didn't have to work that weekend. I remember one year I met a guy there with a booth, who built split bamboo fly rods. I can't recall his name, but he was an attorney. His rods looked and felt really nice. Several folks I spoke to said his rods were high quality. It's been several years, but if I recall correctly, his rods started at $1800. Probably a bit more now, after the plandemic.

If you’ll note my “handle” on here, I used to build split cane rods. It’s a wonderful craft, and I’m self-taught. I haven’t built one since 2011, though. My arthritis and carpal tunnel flares up now when I do much of anything repetitive like that anymore.

I have tons of materials and components for someone if they’re interested in taking the journey. I started out buying antique rods from eBay or Craigslist or antique shops. I would refinish them and put new grips and reel seats, ferrules, and snake guides on them. I would dress them up with agate stripping guides. Silk wraps or “whippings” as they were called would hold the guides on. If I could, I would save the brand and maker’s marks and put new coats of varnish over everything.

There’s an art and a strategy in laying out the strips of cane so that the nodes would be staggered or spiraled. You have to put the right pressure on the cane as it’s being split so the strip doesn’t get too thin or too thick.

I even built my own planing forms. I did hire a machine shop to drill and tap them. The Stanley hand planes are sharpened by hand. I have a Lie-Nielsen 212 scraper plane because the Stanley 212 would cost $1500 by itself IF you could find one for sale.

From 2006 to 2010, I worked in the Middle East as a contractor. When I came home, I planned to do nothing but fish and travel. I spent my first spring “stateside” in Roscoe, NY… aka “Trout Town USA”. It is supposedly the birthplace of fly fishing in America. There are too many memories to share here. Upstate NY is a beautiful place, and it’s packed with brown trout. The names Wulff and Dette are deeply engrained there.

Let me tell you that if you’ve never cast a split cane rod, you ain’t fly fished. If you’ve never caught a trout on a fly you’ve tied, you ain’t fly fished. If you’ve never caught a trout on a fly you’ve tied while casting it with a split cane rod you built yourself, you ain’t fly fished.

It’s an obsession. It’s a passion. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it’s a dying craft. Words cannot express my feelings about split cane rods. Money couldn’t separate me from mine.

I even have one left that I built from a bunch of blanks I bought from the UK. Partridge of Reddich England. I had built a half-dozen of them and sold all but one. It’s an impregnated blank, similar to the ones Orvis sells. They get a couple grand $$$ for theirs.

The last rod I split and planed and glued and whipped guides on and turned the cork grip and set the reel seat and varnished was in 2011. As I said previously, it has been way too long. Maybe this was just enough to push me out to the garage and dig out my tools…..

Splitcane,
I'd love to see some pics and updates if you do get back into the garage and dig out those tools. Very cool.

I have used fly rods some. For me another way of fishing. I use a mini-mag or bluegill rod because I am such a lousy caster I need a fast action and prefer a shorter rod. My age and health I focus on sunfish. But I rarely go anymore because fishing sucks around Lubbock and I do not travel much.

I admire the passion Split Cane and others have for bamboo. Made me curious so I googled for information and to me looked like Trident has reasonable deals on bamboo rods. Except for the reputation of some classic rod makers know nothing about the quality of most. Most of what I know I picked up reading John G. His chapter on bamboo is prbly a treatise for that time.

I was sorry to find out he passed away recently.

I read the Carmichael / Garrison book cover-to-cover. I actually have a first edition that is priceless in the bamboo fly rod world. That’s where I learned how to make my planing forms. In the book, it states that if you don’t have the time and patience to make a set of planing forms, you shouldn’t set out to build split cane rods.

As I get older, my recall of names gets worse and worse, but there was a true gentleman in the Garland / Mesquite area of the D/FW metromess that taught rod building classes in his garage. He also did rod repairs for several of the tackle stores in Dallas. I learned a lot from him, may he rest in peace. I have a catalogue of all the rods I planed and glued. The planing forms are measured every six inches for depth of the groove that the strip of cane goes into.

I wish I had catalogued who I sold them all to. My second wife and I would travel to Colorado and Montana, and I would carry several of my rods along. I would sell them to people I would meet along the way. I remember one sale at a dude ranch in Montana. The folks were there from California, and saw me casting and catching with one of my rods. I honestly could not believe it when the guy’s wife went into their cabin and brought back a wad of Benjamins. Pretty much paid for that trip!