I met a great angler, Blake, from central California last week and got the chance to introduce him to bamboo fly rods. We spent the day fly fishing on the Middle Deschutes River about 12 miles from my house. I set him up with a 7′ 6″ medium action 5 wt rod that he fell in love with. We got into quite few rainbows and browns, and while they weren’t large, we had a wonderful time. Needless to say, I’ll be building Blake a new Bamboo Fly Rod of his own in the upcoming months. Here is Blake in the middle of a cast stalking some fish with dry flies, along with a typical brown that we caught.
A New Bamboo Angler on the Middle Deschutes River
A Middle Deschutes River Brown.
It’s nice to see someone updating their website consistently. Thank-you for sharing your knowledge with your videos. Like you I started assembling glass rods. Key work assembling… I really found the complete satisfaction in bamboo, from culm to varnish and finally the way they cast. I am just completing my 2nd rod and your videos have made things simple. ie; your reel seat jig for the mortise. Your rods are very classy, I bet they cast like a dream. What do you think about the swelled butt rods?
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the kind words about my website. I always have a few more videos in mind that I want to get up on my website but is often hard to find the time to do so. I try to update my blog at least every week or two with something new. I’m out on one of the rivers around where I live at least a couple of times a week and always try to have a camera with me. That helps with new content for my blog. With my rods, my personal preference is for medium action rods. My mentor told me one time, “Don’t be influenced by what other folks think you should build, build what you like”. So, I try to stay with that. Swelled butt rods….I don’t build swelled butt rods. I like to feel my fly rods flex down deep into the cork when I cast them. You don’t really get that feel with a swelled butt, which tend to push the flex of the rod out in front of the cork grip. They have a unique feel to them that a lot of people like, and they have a ‘cool look’ to them as well. But, that feel is not what I’m after with my rods. I got to spend a couple of days fishing with Rick Robbins, bamboo rod builder from Virginia, this summer. Rick puts swelled butts on all his rods, and he does wonderful work. We had some great conversations about rod design and action. Thanks again for taking the time to peruse my website, and good luck in your continued rod building efforts.