well I took the plunge last weekend and ordered a custom four weight seven foot bamboo rod with two tips. The tips will be slightly different, and one will be a little stiffer. The handle will not be cork, but burled hardwood for the sensitivity factor alone. While at the rod builder's place he showed me a gently used 3 weight that had one tip. Told me that he'd make me a deal on that one that I couldn't refuse. I may end up two rods after all is said and done! gary
Is this your first bamboo fly rod? I tried one about 25 years ago and used them ever since. I have a bunch of synthetics but they don't get much use. It's tough to grab a synthetic once you have used a good bamboo. I have four, two 4wts and two 5wts.
I hadn't planned on buying one, but in the back of my head I always wanted one. I just liked the feel I got castiing one, and the effortless distance I got. These rods just seem to stack up power like nothing I've used in the past. Most of my rods are Scotts with a couple Sages and maybe three or four Loomis rods. I do have one high end Winston that maybe the single worst rod I've ever owned. That thing won't cast, and at best is a thirty foot ros with the wind behind my back. Makes a good pitching rod for really big rats and things like that. (feels like trying to cast with a flipping stick!) If I also buy the three weight, I'll use it for pocket water. gary
I started with an Orvis Madison 5wt years ago and loved it. My favorite is a 4wt 7.5 ft. custom Two piece that I use exclusively on the small New England streams. The action and feel is incredible. Also have a Winston 5w Brackett and an old Payne 5w. The closest graphite i have in terms of feel similar to a good bamboo rod is a Winston Tom Morgan Favorite that is an 8ft/ 4wt. The rest of my rids are various weights of Orvis and Winston, Orvis being quite popular here in the Northeast and not too bad depending on style. I also don't like many of the Winston graphite/boron rods, but do like the IM7 based rods. They have much better feel.
i have a bamboo rod with 2 tips in a cloth bag and an aluminum case i bought about 35 years ago at an estate sale. ive never used it and it appeared unused when i bought it. its a montague brand which im told is not a very high end rod. i should sell it as im strictly a salt water guy down here and this rod certainly wouldnt do for that. how much is the thing worth seeing as its in mint condition? as i recall its a 3 or 4 pc about 8' in legnth. i'll have to refresh my memory by looking at it again.
I love to fish the Appalachians down in Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia, all the way up to the PA border.. That's where pocket water is king, and I love it. My two favorite pocket water rigs right now are a Scott G series rod in 3 weight (7 foot), and a Loomis Triology in 2 weight (8 foot). I will be playing around with a 11'6" Tankara rod this spring (might get the 13' one instead) as this might be the killer rod for pocket water. I used a 13' one last summer for about an hour, and caught a bunch of fish on a home brew green rock worm. You litterally toss it out there and let it do it's own thing in the current. The system is cheap, and there's no reel to mess with. The actually flyline is about eight inches long and made from the back end of an old piece of two weight flyline with an Orvis loop attached to it. The leaders are kinda specialized in they are very long (10' to 16' being the norm). In otherwords the perfect pocket water system. The whole rod collapses down to about 20", so it's easy to take up into the higher elevations and can be ready to fish in about three or four minutes! Have been planning a trip up your way for about a year now. Want to fish the Catskills one more time and then move on up to the Finger Lakes region. After I'm done with that I want to head east into Vermont and New Hampshire following the Connecticut River up into Maine. Then head east over to the Rangely area. Brother in law has an RV we can operate out of, and I think it would be neat two and a half week trip up there (maybe even a month). In the past I always did a long trip out west. Starting up near Chalma New Mexico and finishing out in Montana, stopping here and there along the way. I even had three or four places I fished on the way back home. Seemed like every year I found two or three new rivers to explore the next year. Have fished a little bit in California, and kinda want to do that one again. gary
There are some of those rods that are pretty decient, but I don't remember which ones. At that age it probably needs to be rebuilt. I have a beatifull bone fish rig, and can't fish salt water in the day time anymore. I'm in that 10% group that's highly suseptical to skin cancer, so I just gave up on it. Makes a fine bass and steel head rod though. gary
I'm pretty much a dry fly nut and follow the northeast hatches through the season from Quill Gordons in early spring through to the tiny olives in the fall. The small native Brookies are my favorite. Some of the streams are narrower than my kitchen table. They are like jewels. This is where a fine light weight bamboo shines. I haven't been around the country much but fished the upper Conn. River several years ago in Northern Néw Hampshire. Great fishing! One of my favorites at the other extreme is Striper fishing the coastline from Maine to Rhode Island. They can run from 2 pounds to 30+. For this is I use a 8-9 wt/9ft. Thomas and Thomas or Orvis graphite.
when my son inlaw was posted at Ft. Bragg, they lived about five minutes from the Cape Fear River, and I always planed on doing afloat trip down that river, but never got the time. (really need a ten weight rod down there). I did do some nice coastal red fishing a couple times near the Sabene River on the Texas border. Never caught the fish I wanted but did get some serious break offs! Longest I caught was about thirty two inches, but there are some that are four feet long! The second hurricane went right thru the property I used to stay on, and pretty much did that fishing in for me. I mostly small mouth fish and large mouth bass fish around here. Caught a couple seven pounders and several six pounders over the years. gary
got the two reels ordered last week (gulp!) Finally settled on two Hardys as I just didn't have enough money to buy two more Lightspeeds. Doctor has me on lockdown for a while longer, so my fishing is pretty much done till Spring gets here (I hope). Got bit by a hand full of black flies back in June, and they created a major leg infection that eventually spead all over my body. Just can't get out and stand for long periods, but the steriods he has me on right now seem to be working very well (now all I do is itch all over). Turns out that there was a varity of these black flies that are extremely venomus, and I had seven bites on one leg and three on the other. There are three or four other known cases in my area and they didn't know what caused it till I came along (they thought they were spider bites). But we're rapidly getting better gary
I'm a real fan of the Hardy reels and have managed to aquire a few over the years. They are all on my bamboo rods. The old Orvis CFO's were made by Hardy. That is where I really developed a liking for them. That is really unfotunate that you contracted an infection from black flies. I never heard of it! I'm glad that it is under control and you will likely be back on the streams in the spring to put those Hardys to use! Art
I guess it's a rare strain of them as I've been bitten hundreds of times by them. But these were different! My calfs must have swollen up two inches bigger in diameter alone. Broke out with hives all over, and they wouldn't go away. (still have a few) Killed my deer hunting as well as my fishing this fall. (have a new inline muzzel loader I'm playing with). I got all winter to stay busy tying flies, and maybe even developing a couple new rats for really big bass. (next time I get in the mood I'll tie you a couple). Also have a couple more gun projects in the works. (the 6BG is a go along with something new in 30 caliber) gary
I dont know if you ever tried this but it's all natural cedar oil made by Rose City Archery. I have been using it for years and it works great against Mosquitos, black flies, ticks etc. I make my own cedar arrows for long bow shooting. We have a big tick problem and I've had to be treated for Lyme twice. Bugg Off It's good that you have a lot to keep you busy! Art Art
I used to bow hunt a little bit years back, but pinched a nerve on the outside of my right rib cage. I can shoot about six or eight arrows right before I fell all the muscles cramp up. Never was what I'd call good at it, but it was fun. Brother inlaw is a champion archery shooter, and shot for several of the big name companies. Where I was striving for half dollar sized groups he was shooting dime sized ones all day long. He shoots a couple custom built recurves during hunting season (Black Widow I think). I saw him practicing once with his hunting bow years ago (Quadraflex) and the target shooters goto ragging him (he also shot tournament archery stuff) after he put his stuff up. He went back out to the truck and got his bow and hunting arrows, Changed the tips, and promptly shot a 60 with 57 in the X ring. The guy that owned the place told the other guys that he knew they were in trouble when they first opened their mouths. He did the same thing three years later with a guy I worked with that shot for Mathews. gary
