Chinese Bamboo rods

[wbranch]

Have any forum members ever bought any of the Chinese cane rods I see advertised on various websites? They look very nice. Nice looking cork, reelseats, wraps. The write ups say they are built to tapers of Garrison, Leonard, etc. For a couple hundred bucks I'd buy one if they were cosmetically appealing and had a decent action.

 

[DomR]

Have any forum members ever bought any of the Chinese cane rods I see advertised on various websites? They look very nice. Nice looking cork, reelseats, wraps. The write ups say they are built to tapers of Garrison, Leonard, etc. For a couple hundred bucks I'd buy one if they were cosmetically appealing and had a decent action.

Yes, I have a Headwaters that I purchased around 20 years ago when I was just getting into bamboo (and didn't know any better). It was one of their 1st models an 8' 5-6wt. I had to have the ferrules reglued but otherwise it's been fine. It's definitely a medium action but not at all a noodle, it casts pretty well. The rod maker that did the ferrule work for me said that the cane work looked good, not heirloom quality but ok for fishing purposes.

I still use it on outings with dicey conditions (bad weather, bushwacking) and on the D for smallies (not going to cry if I ding it with a conehead). My son also used it a fair amount before he went off to school in the city, the action was very forgiving when teaching him to flip cast and roll cast.

 

[redietz]

Some of them are pretty good, but quality varies from rod to rod, even the same taper from the same maker.