Meet and Greet a Bamboo Fly Rod

[Ken G]

I'm thinking of doing this on Saturday at Les Arends for any fly guys that want to wave a bamboo stick around for a bit.

I'm thinking 1 PM, middle parking lot and going till they kick us out or I get bored.

I know a few others that don't come here that might be interested.

What do you think?

[Ken G]

It's a done deal.

Saturday the 11th at 2 PM at the Les Arends Forest Preserve if any one wants to play around with the rod for a bit.

2nd parking lot.

Fishing afterward. More fishing than playing around with the rod I hope.

I want to see how guys that know what they're doing casts this thing.

[Ken G]

Cancelled due to breaking one of the tips.

Don't want to chance it on the second one.

Nick, you can have it Monday if you want it. I'm done.

[Nick]

Cancelled due to breaking one of the tips.

Don't want to chance it on the second one.

Nick, you can have it Monday if you want it. I'm done.

Sounds good, Ken...

[Nick]

Did you contact the rod builder yet?

[Ken G]

Did you contact the rod builder yet?

In a round about way on something else. Not sure he was aware of the tip yet. Got this from Rebecca this morning...

Ken,

I think you should take it fishing again and not change your intentions.

In my opinion, a fly rod should be fished without the worry of it breaking. If it does break, we fix it. No biggie.

I shot off an email to them asking what they would like to do about the broken tip and I'll let you know what they say.

If you fish it this weekend and the other tip breaks, well then between you and me, Fall River Fly Rods needs to address the reason.

It's not like you are out fishing for 20 pounders that need a 10 weight fly rod. That rod should have no issues with the smallies you are after (in my opinion of course) and should be able to handle any kind of hook set you throw at it.

Keep it =)
Rebecca

Also sent you an email about a Cast and Compare in Oakbrook on Wednesday. That's what I contacted Jason about. I'll be going. He's mailing me some business cards that I hope will arrive on Tuesday. If you think you can make it, I can give you the rod that day. It's a TU event, I never go to them, but this one sounds kind of cool and I owe it to Jason for breaking the tip.

Let me know if you can be there.

[Nick]

The TU think might be tough...it's the little guy's 1st b-day and the father in law flies in to town

[Ken G]

Nick, we'll do it on friday like planned. Family first.

Got this email form Jason Zicha the rod builder this morning. It will finish the trip with one tip. I'm shipping the other back to him.

Ken,

I heard about your total abuse of the fly rod (kidding). Don’t fret about it too much. Below is the response I sent to Rebecca yesterday:

Rebecca,

Thanks for the link.

As far as the break goes...that’s just part of life. We all break fly rods from time to time regardless of what they are made of. A customer sent me an old rod last week that he broke on the Green in UT trying to land what he thinks was his biggest brown ever...using 3X.

Bottom line, it can be fixed, one way or another. There are several avenues we can take with the repair depending on exactly how it broke. If the person who has it can ship just the broken tip to me, I’ll get started, though it probably wont be finished until it’s headed for it’s final owner.

American bamboo fly rods are traditionally built with 2 tips because they came into fashion in the 1880’s. At that time, our country was settling the west. If a rod was broken, it had to travel by stage coach and train to the North East to be repaired and in the mean time, the owner had lost a food source for many months (it was not a hobby to them). The second tip allowed for a repair to be made, while still having a suitable fly rod in possession (as we can see...it still works the same today).

One of the nice things about a bamboo rod is that instead of tossing them in the trash after a break, we can fix them, and in turn add to the history of the rod (kind of like me taking my 500+ pound motorcycle off road, every dent and scratch is a memory).

Don’t take the break as any kind of editorial about how the fly rod feels about the smallies, I’m sure it enjoyed the trip afield. I have to tell you, I abuse my personal rods (and our demos) to no end. I do things on every trip that I specifically tell customers not to do just in the name of product testing (I want to know just how much abuse they can take) I hang them in a bush, let the reel seat go under water, throw them from the river up on the bank when climbing out, haul them all over the west on a motorcycle, yank stuck flies out of trees with the rod instead of the line, subject them to too much heat and on and on. You’ve just become another Beta Tester.

I put some business cards in the mail for you last night, hopefully they arrive on time for your event on Tues.

Jason

[Rob P]

i have an old bamboo one i bought about 20 years ago.
Casted in the yard but never on water.

I was able to find info it was made scotland/UK in early teens-early 30's.
Very cool ferrule with a twist lock latch.

reel has line somebody added about 30-40 years ago.

Feels like a noodle, probably cast like a dream.

I had wanted to catch one fish, then hang it over my bar.

Now it sits in my garage-waiting to be checked for cracks for the one trip.

*
in addition, i found a bamboo trolling rod about 5ft long.
maybe 50-60's.
i need a matching reel.
that combo is going over a mount on the wall.

we hooked a big tuna a few weeks ago.
getting it mounted for the basement.