Walter & Group.........
From Guy Manning:
On
Bamboo rods…
Granted
bamboo will never be as fast as carbon fibers, but they can be made quite fast
comparatively. There was a gentleman at the LBCC who began making bamboo rods
about 10 years ago. He brought one to the club one day and ended up with 3
orders (almost 4 but I didn’t have the bucks). These were all sold to graphite
guys who liked them because they had a very brisk action, more so than any other
bamboo I had tried.
It
is my belief that the ability to make fast bamboo rods has always been there but
the tackle technology kept the makers from going there until just recently. 75
years ago people were still using gut leaders. According to The Wise Fishermen’s
Encyclopedia published in 1951, a silkworm gut leader material of 4X (.006, now
isn’t that interesting) had a minimum permissible breaking strength of 5/8 of
one pound.
I
have a copy of “Sport with Gun and Rod in American Woods and Waters”, Edited by
Alfred Mayer and published in by The Century Co. in 1883. There is a 46 page
story by one A.G. Wilkinson entitled Salmon-fishing. In it he describes spending
a month on the Gaspe Pennisula fishing the St. Jean River, Dartmouth and the
Gaspe, during the summer of 1875 with some friend. Apparently an acquaintance of
his held the rights to the river. They were the only anglers on the river while
they were there. He talks about how it would take them 20-30 minutes and
sometime considerably even more time to land a fish running up to 35 lbs. Most
of them were using Greenheart double handed rods. He was using one of the new
fangled bamboo double handed rods made by some guy named Leonard, which he felt
was far superior to the greenheart.
I
was coming to the conclusion that these guys were a bunch of very wealthy
wannabes (even though Wilkinson seemed well read having sited Norris’ “American
Anglers Book” since it was taking soooo long to land the fish. At one point he
starts talking more about the gear and tackle. It turns out that the well
appointed salmon angler of those days would be using 05X tippet sections.
According to the Wise Encyclopedia that equates to about .016 inches and 5 ½ lb
break strength. Needless to say my opinion of the wannabes changed to one of
admiration.
I
see the action of bamboo in the past being a function of the breaking strength
of the materials they had available, not so much by a choice of fast or soft
rods.
FFF
Master Certified Casting Instructor
Moderator
FFFCCI Yahoo Group
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Guy ..... Good info. Thanks !
Years ago, we had problems with the varnish finish on bamboo fly rods in the salt .... the metal fittings would corrode, too. Despite that, they were a pleasure to fish. They provided a hard to define, "different" kind of connection between the angler and the fish. The bamboo rod I now use, has titanium fittings, a light epoxy finish, and I'm certain the glue materials are much different. I holds up just fine.
We, also, used the old Greenheart fly rods before WW II . Heavy ! ..... like casting a war club. A far cry from bamboo. Main attribute was that you could put great pressure on salt water fish which were not leader shy using Cuttyhunk linen leaders and wire tippet.
(I remember having to soak the, "gut" leader material to make it soft enough to tie or even bend....then when used in salt water, it would stiffen up again !)
Gordy
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From Ken Cole:
Morning, Gordy and Jerry
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Ken... Thanks for the info. I suspected as much. They deserve a lot of credit. Gordy
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From Harry Boyd. (I edited out a little bit of personal stuff)
Hi Bob, Gordy...
Yes, I took the CCI performance
exam with a bamboo rod of my own design and build. It was a fast-action 8
foot seven weight. Gene Holland of Oklahoma passed the performance part of
the test with a 8'6" Winston bamboo rod, too. Syd Smith, my buddy from the
Gulf Coast is a bamboo nut, but passed the test with a Sage 6
weight.
Be happy to try to answer any
questions about modern bamboo rod actions. I like calling them full, mid,
and tip flex rather than slow, medium, and fast.
Harry
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Harry...
Thanks ! Do you remember what line you used ?
Reminds me of Tim Rajeff teaching that he likes to look at the variations of rod actions in terms of where they flex most as just as important than how much they flex.
Tom White used to talk about, "Tip casting", "Butt casting", and "Mid casting" referring to where the caster makes a rod of any material or design bend.
Can you provide us with your website? I'm sure there is much to be learned by our Study Group members.
Gordy
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ROBERT
TABBERT wrote:
Gordy.perhaps you have met or know Harry Boyd from Monroe,LA, a CCI and bamboo rod builder?...Harry's web site has a lot of information on bamboo rods..Harry probably knows more about bamboo rods then any one walking around on two legs...Harry may have taken his CCI test with a bamboo rod, Bob
Robert L. Tabbert
Conservation, Fly Fishing, Exploration
Winter: 211 Ursuline St,
Lafayette, LA 70506
Summer: N14925,W Turner Lk Rd
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538 715 588 2395~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bob ... Most of us know that Harry is a true expert on all things bamboo !
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