Why Bamboo
First, a little history. From the birth of fly fishing, rods were made of a variety of natural materials. Almost every type of wood was used by one maker or another. Some rods were made entirely of the same material, others made with butt sections of one species of wood and the tip made of another species. I imagine, fisherman of the day sat around campfires and argued that their ash butt/alder tip rod was better that his buddies solid hickory rod. A little too much ale, there could have been a fight involved. Fishermen have not changed as much as the tackle, I’m afraid. Eventually, rods began being made with bamboo. Initially in conjunction with another wood, as in a wooden butt with a bamboo tip. Early in the mid 1800’s, rods made entirely of split-bamboo were being made. The early ones were turned or sanded round. Hiram Leonard, an American, is credited with making the first hexagonal split bamboo rods in the 1880’s. The first “ modern “ bamboo fly rod. Hence, the bamboo fly rod, as we now know it, is an American invention. Solid wood rods continued to be made along with the bamboo rods for several decades. The solid wood rods began to disappear from production in the 1920’s. Bamboo rods were the rods of choice, the victor of the war for material superiority, so to speak. Following the Second World War, rods of fiberglass began to be produced. These fiberglass rods began to erode the market of the less expensive, mass-produced bamboo rods. A few small shops and individuals continued to make high-end bamboo fly rods. Anyone who has done any study about bamboo rods knows the name of these shops and individuals, Leonard, Garrison, Payne, Dickerson and a host of others. These small shops and individuals became the nucleus that the current bamboo rod makers evolved from. Gone are the companies that made relatively inexpensive bamboo rods by the thousand. What remained is a cottage industry of small rod companies and individual rod makers producing anywhere for a few rods to several dozen rods a year. The quality of these rods rival and even surpass the rods made during the so called “ golden age “ of the first half of the 1900’s.
GALLERY
THE SHOP
THE FISH
THE RODS