They just look so good together

[flygoddess]

Added a new reel to the collection. Great buy on it and it just screams Bamboo:




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[macfly55]

yes they look good together.. where did you get that reel.....??

MacFly
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[flygoddess]

E-BAY![laugh]
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[Dryrod]

[center][font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Hummm - just might have one of those guys in my Dad's collection. Do you have a brand name or any ID# available?[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[flygoddess]

It is just the looks DR. It is a Vom Hoffe replica. Put out by Angler's Roost.
The plus side of this replica, is modern technology. The reel is aluminum and light as a feather. The down side, the bamboo I am having built will be an older taper (91) and it will be more tip heavy than I am use to.
Now a heavier reel will be the ticket for it.
An old trick, buy weighted trolling line. Put it on the reel then the backing, then the line.
But for now, this reel on my ultra light 7' 4 weight boo is a perfect marriage.
An although not the genuine article, I panic enough with the price of the rod let alone a reel, so the Replica is perfect.
You realize, if I were to use the real thing, it would be like fishing with the cost of a car.
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[Brook]

Actually, they look like crap together!

Nah, I don't really believe that. Just felt like being contrary. [cool]


Brook
http://the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com
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[Thudpucker]

When we finally had to put Mom in a an assisted living, we had to sell the house. In cleaning out all the little nook's n' crannies, I found a bunch of that Bamboo stuff.
One was a four piece in a box with a bunch of Dry flies.
Two or three old reels. Nothing I wanted.

I cant remember who I gave that stuff to. Somebody who wanted it I suppose.
It'd been up in the rafters of that basemnt since 1955 or so. I had to be so dry it'd crack if you tried to use it.
I never in my life can remember ever seeing my Dad fish unless it was out in the Salt water for Salmon. I dont have any idea where he got that Bamboo fly rod stuff.

So be careful what you buy on Ebay FG, it may be pretty old and dried out.
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[flygoddess]

Excellent warning. I wouldn't buy a bamboo off e-bay anyway. There were sooooo many bamboos made back in the day, basically that was all there was till around the 70's if I remember right.
There were allot of H&I's and Montagues (Sears and Roebucks). Long 9'ers, very heavy and made for wet flies.
Cheap then and still are.
There were the ones that people really want now also like Heddon, but they were still heavy.
I am having a 8 1/2' Blank made for me in either a Payne 98 or 101 taper. I have used one and that taper is the one that works best all around for my style.
The one in the picture weighs a little over 3 oz. It is a three piece Orvis Battenkill 7' four weight.

In other words, not all bamboo is created equal. You DO have to know what to look for.
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[Thudpucker]

They are still making Bamboo's somewhere in the U.S. or Canada. It was on the TV show: "How its made" and it was an interesting segment.
It takes a whole week to make a Bamboo fly rod, and thats if you have everything at hand and ready to go.

I'm sorry I'm such a Clod M'dear, but I'm sticking with my F/Glass as long as I can.
I'm stuck with this Graphite stuff, but I really miss my old Fenwicks.
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[flygoddess]

There are allot of US bamboo builders. The Tonkin cane however still comes from Tonkin which lies between Vietnam and China.
Why Tonkin Cane?
Naturally straight
No branches
Slight taper
Power fibers stiff and resilient
Nodes almost flat
Selective harvesting for full maturity
Tough and strong

This why is is the choice for the high end Bamboo rods. They send reps over to hand pick the stock.

I am not that versed on the subject to know if there is CANE actually from the U.S.A. used to make bamboo rods.
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[mojorizing]

I saw the same segment you saw. It was T&T. There is so many independent rod builders out there it would make you head swim. I wasn't impressed with the way T&T built theirs for the money that they charge for them. I'd go to an independent builder for another cane rod. Chris Carlin, Bill Oyster, Ron Kuss, R. L. Nunley, Harry Boyd, and dozens more. Less money than most bigger rod companies and better built. They make them to order. It takes more than a week to do a good job. You pay half up front and wait for about a year for your rod. That's real craftsmanship. These guys don't build them to to put on a shelf in a fly fishing shop.

Thud, I agee with you on the fiberglass. 99% of my fishing is with glass. Check out my latest build I just finished.
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=456717;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=456717;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread[/url]
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[Brook]

>...that was all there was till around the 70's if I remember right.
There were allot of H&I's and Montagues (Sears and Roebucks). <

Goodness, no, FG. Fibreglas rods were introduced in the 50s, and there were still a few steel rods kicking around.

Original fibreglas rods used solid blanks, and were just as abominable as that sounds. But good hollow blanks were soon available.

Graphite was introduced, IIRC in the late 60s, and all those combined materials like graphite/magnesium and boron followed in the 70s.

A funny story about those cheap bamboo rods. When I was working down at the marina a guy comes along with one of them he'd inherited. Wanted to know how valuable it was, cuz, after all, it was a bamboo rod with two tips.

You should have seen his face when I told him the box was worth more than the rod. He didn't believe it until I offered him fifteen bucks right then for the box, and he could keep the rod.

Brook
http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com
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[flygoddess]

Brook, sorry I was referring to the bamboo to the Graphite transition. But you definitely know your stuff. I should have mentioned the glass which came out shortly after WWII, but again My mind was only going in two dimension...wood, plastic.

I do remember the solid ones and the metal....I even have one still (my grandfathers).
I would love one of the old translucent red glass rods. Have only seen one of them.
Hard to relate to the idea that Plastic/Graphite has only been around for around 38 or so years where the other two pushing and over passing a half of century.
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[Brook]

I'm sure there are some of those red transluscent rods kicking around. Fly fishermen are, as a group, loathe to give up their tried & true equipment. Or maybe it's just that with a sport that's remained virtually unchanged in nature for more than 600 years, there's a reluctance to jump on to the latest, greatest, newest whatever.

You may or my not remember (I'd never ask a lady her age) that when graphite was first introduced, spin- and casting-fishermen jumped on it, while us reactionary flyfishermen---who actually benefit from its properties more than the others do---took a wait and see approach.

Until WWII there were still Brits using greenheart rods. Might even be a few still doing so, for all I know.

Silk lines, in the old alphabetic classifications, were preferred by many old-timers in the U.S. well into the 60s and 70s.

In the mid-60s, when Arnold Gingrich's The Well Tempered Angler was published, he was still talking about matching midge rods to HEH and HDG lines.

And aren't you glad we don't have to remember what that means, anymore!

I usually don't argue with people over their choice of equipment. But one of those dinosaurs once tried to convince me how much better silk is (matched to bamboo, of course) over the modern "plastic" lines. I asked him if he still made his own horsehair leaders, too. Didn't endear me to him at all.

Brook
[url "http://the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com"]http://the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com[/url]
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[Dryrod]

[font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]A little history relived: [/size][/#008000][/font]
[#008000][size 4]1955 Dedicated Salmon/[font "Garamond"][#008000]Steelhead[/#008000][/font] Rods: The replacement of bamboo with fiberglass was seen by St. Croix engineers as an exceptional opportunity. Rods dedicated to increase success when fishing for specific species or in unique environments (such as the rolling surf) were soon coming off the production line. In 1955 St. Croix had only two salmon/steelhead models but there would be twenty-four by the following year. [/size][/#008000]
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[flygoddess]

HOLY COW! Do you know GRAMPS? On another forum, there was a gent going by GRAMPS. He posted about buying silk and went on and on about how great it was. I only said for the price, there are many synthetic lines out there that can and will serve the same function.

He came at me with both barrels.

Silk was and still is a good choice with the smaller guides which was on some of the older rods.

NOW, try Sharkskin on glass or bamboo and you will be in heaven. Granted SS is getting close to the price of silk, but, no maintenance.
You do have to get use to the sound however.

I know one of Orvis first rods going from bamboo to glass was the full flex line like the Far and Fine. They are still great Graphite.
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[Brook]

No, I don't know Gramps. I'm not on any other flyfishing forums. Used to be on Danny Wall's list, but I can't handle 250 posts/day.

There's only so much time for playing, so I only do it on courts where I'm comfortable with the other players.

The old-timer I referred to I had actually met on-stream. I had stopped to admire him---he used that classic casting style---I could envision a book under his elbow---that was beautiful to watch.

I'd hopscotched to the next pool, and, shortly after, he came by doing the same. And we got to be talking.

Talking! Ha. He lectured, I listened. Until I threw in the line about horsehair leaders, and he went off in a huff.

Keep in mind, it wasn't his silk I objected to. It was his attitude. Far as I'm personally concerned, silk has only one divantage---I'm not conciencious enough to dry and care for it. Which is my misfortune and none of its own.

I'm convinced, though, that all flyfishers are reactionary to one degree or another. Why, then, do I continue tying my own leaders when perfectly good factory ones exist? Why then do we stick to very old patterns when new ones are often more effective? Why are we out there picking up road kills, when so many synthetics do the job better?Why, indeed, are we even talking about bamboo rods and silk lines?

Flyfishing is the only sport I know of that has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. Despite "advances" in equipment and casting methods, we are doing precisely what Dame Juliana did---delivering a bundle of fluff to a fish by swinging it on the end of a line and stick. In fact, many of the fly patterns we use are the same dozen she used, or variants of them.

Deep down, I believe, we want to accomplish the task of delivering fly to fish exactly the way she did.

Brook
[url "http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com"]http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com[/url]
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