You buy bamboo rods on faith; the faith of our fathers. That is bamboo is the best material for fly rods. I did. But it took me about a year to adapt and learn the correct casting stoke for the cane. It’s very subtle. Now I can cast as far as any graphite and with the accuracy to make a proper presentation of the fly. And I like to think that accuracy for that presentation is far better then any plastic rod. Don't get me wrong, I am not a snob and I more often fish graphite (carbon fiber is the more correct term, graphite is in fact a great dry lubricant, as my Dad taught me.). However, it has to be the right bamboo rod. In 1978 I was fortunate purchase a new Palakona 8' 2 pcs 6 wgt made by the old masters at Hardy. Because of it's accuracy, this rod is perfect for the Little Lehigh where presentation is everything and where I primarily fish it. No, this bamboo 6 wgt is not to heavy for the LL. Yes, a 6 wgt, plastic rod is; it doesn't protect the tippet. This 2 pcs bamboo is a beautiful light rod. If such a thing could exist, this is a fast action bamboo rod. But still as a 6 wgt, the single fly for the most trout this rod has taken has been on a #24 trico spinner. Again, due to it’s accuracy & presentation. I don’t have to think at all about the cast; it’s just there.
From my father-in-law I inherited 3 bamboo rods, 2 pre WW2 Grangers, one’s a 3 wgt & the other a 4 wgt and a post War South Bend 6/7 wgt. Those old guys were tough; even though I’m a big guy I can’t cast the South Bend for more then half a day. And they used heavy automatic fly reels to add even more weight. After fishing the 3 & 4 wgt Grangers, I really prefer my plastic rods in the lighter wgts. So I don’t use these 3 cane rods very much. But I still love my 6 wgt.
As to why bamboo has this mythical property of casting ability and the often referred to “feel” so revered by us devotees, the only explanation I have is this: All manmade materials are a transverse woven fabric. They must have a cross weave to support them longitudinally, or else they would collapse along their length. And when the carbon fabric is wrapped on the mandrel to be baked into a rod, the longitudinal carbon strands are in a matrix crisscrossing each other at various angles. Therefore, all glass or graphite rods have a built in oscillation caused by their base material and the manner of their construction. No matter how carefully they are constructed or how carefully you cast, the rod tip will oscillate in a figure 8. Whereas bamboo has all its strength in it’s cells. Both on the interior of each cell and in the bound to each other, they don’t need any transverse support to keep them from collapsing along the rod’s length. If a well made bamboo rod was mounted onto a metronome and set in motion, in time, it will settle into and the rod tip will scribe a path in exactly the same plane. Just like a pendulum on a grandfather clock, as I learned in my high school physics. Then the rod can cast the line in exactly the same plane and thus be on target. Only the caster can input an outside force causing the rod tip to oscillate and deviate from that plane and thus imparting that oscillation onto the line so that it travels in side to side loops and misses the caster’s intended target. But now in the reeeal world how many fly fishers can move the rod in the same plane with no oscillation thus keeping the tip and line travelling in the same plane? I don’t know. There must be some that can consistently. And some of time, I believe all of us are able to do this. So theoretically, due to it’s cellular structure only bamboo is capable of allowing you to become the best caster you can be. But the only way to find out is to get your own bamboo rod and experience the “feel” for yourself. Then you too, can keep the faith.
Tightlines, Larry
