If you start making bamboo fly rods–or even start fishing with them–eventually this question is inevitable. This is understandable; after all, next to tech that is even 20 years old at this point, bamboo fly rods still seem ripped out of a bygone age.
Many in the bamboo purist ranks have waxed philosophical about how new isn’t necessarily better. Others approach it from a standpoint of scientific practicality: there are demonstrable and quantifiable ways we can show our devotion to bamboo fly rods is superior, after all. Never mind that we can also lose these arguments about certain aspects. Internet warriors beware. Some of us will point to a sense of nostalgia, or perhaps wanting something made by a real person, from start to finish.
Much of why I fish with and make bamboo fly rods might be captured in those reasons, but at the end of the day, I just like them. A lot.
That’s not enough? Okay then…
I like making them. I like fishing with them. I think they can be great tool that is enjoyable for much of the fishing I do. That is much, but not all. I am not a purist, and find that my kayak fishing in the saltwater is pretty hard on tackle, for example. I have some expendable graphite for this. It’s not at all that I don’t think bamboo isn’t up to the task, I just don’t like abusing my own work, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to abuse someone else’s.
At their best, bamboo rods are a joy to cast, and sometimes a puzzle to solve (I’m looking at you, Paul Young). At their worst, they give people the false impression that bamboo is a terrible choice for a modern fishing rod material. Industry trends actively reinforce this idea, and it is maddening.
There are many regional gatherings of bamboo rodmakers, and at all of them I have attended groups of people line up casting rods of various taper designs. To the uninitiated this might seem a little strange. These casters pick out blades of grass as targets rather than rising fish. Getting your hands on and casting as many bamboo fly rods as you can is one of the best things you can do if you are interested in buying or making one. Or many.
Finding my place and the rods I enjoy.
I quickly realized that these events are like proper beer or wine tastings–a sensory experience. Newbies simply dive in and try everything and overindulge (newbies = me in this historically accurate and cautionary tale). Experienced samplers, however, are like craft beer brewers who can smell and taste a beer to the point of deconstruction. These beer gurus can tell you which yeast, hops, and malts were used with a few sniffs and a sip or two. The bamboo casting gurus have a practiced and developed casting palette, and can tell you if a rod feels like it has a taper evolved from Garrison, Payne, Young, or a host of others. Some of these people really know their stuff. It can be intimidating.
Not being experienced or knowing my stuff at the time, I left my first gathering with a bamboo fly rod hangover. The following days I glimpsed only vague memories of the first and last rods I cast. I found cryptic notes shoved into my pockets with makers’ names. As near as I could recall, I was planning to contact them for their tapers. There were a lot of them, and looking back I probably had on whatever the rodmakers’ equivalent is of beer goggles.
Having never ended a night on the town by emptying a pocket full of potential dates to call, I assumed I was in the right place. I could just date fly rods. By the time I recovered, I knew I needed intervention. Or at least a better plan. Maybe I could just drink more water during the gathering and take a couple of ibuprofen before bed.
Bamboo fly rod gurus
To carry this analogy to its conclusion, after a day of heavy casting of bamboo fly rods you might recover and realize that bamboo isn’t for you. More likely (you did opt to go to a bamboo fly rod conclave, after all), you will want to dive deeper. Perhaps you even learned your lessons about gluttony. Maybe you’re a hopeless cause and begin to go down the path of becoming a bamboo fly rod guru.
The gurus are the real heavy-hitters. In the beer world we designate gurus as Cicerones. In the wine world we call them Sommeliers. I don’t think we need exams, a thorough vetting process, and some obscure official title for bamboo fly rod gurus, but as I said before some of these people really know their stuff.
I am not a bamboo fly rod guru. There are many things I don’t know, but I am learning more all of the time. I do know quite a bit about making fly rods out of bamboo, though I’ll never stop learning more. It is simply not possible to know everything.
Most importantly, I know I enjoy casting and fishing with bamboo, and making the rods I fish with. And that, for me, is enough.
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