Bamboo in Saltwater?

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Robert Swift
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Bamboo in Saltwater?

#1

Post by Robert Swift »

Are there many bamboo enthusiasts fishing saltwater? Are there any special tips or precautions I need to be aware of? What about reels?

In particular, is there any reason not to use my Uncle's old salmon outfits to go after striped bass? I have his Leonard and his Orvis impregnated rods and several Hardy perfects -- 3 1/2", 3 3/4" and a 3 7/8"

As a coastal Connecticut native I've tossed bait and artificials at stripers all my life. Last year I bought a #9 weight graphite outfit and started fly-fishing -- trying to cast deceivers at some favorite rock-piles. I really enjoyed myself!

My uncle was a salmon fisherman who suffered a stroke around 1960. His gear has been sitting in a closet ever since. I've only used his bamboo rods for practice on the lawn, but I do love casting them! It seems a shame not to fish them, when I'm blessed to live 1/2 mile from a beautiful rocky coastline.

I've been reading the forum for about a week, but this is my first post. It's been fun to find information here on a lot of my Uncle's ancient gear. I think he had one-of-everything sold at Abercrombie in the 1950's.

Thanks for a great forum.

Robert

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pvansch1
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#2

Post by pvansch1 »

I fish the CT coast and saltwater with a bamboo flyrod.
Rinse it well in freshwater and let it dry. Polish the bamboo with Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax.
Enjoy!!

hat
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#3

Post by hat »

Stripers on bamboo is great fun, but you get even more odd looks than fishing bamboo in fresh water! I fish an 8 1/2' Orvis kit rod I bought from Marty Keane with a 7 WF or an intermediate striper line. Most of my striper fishing is wading estuaries (I live a bit north of Cape Cod), so often even the "schoolie" stripers give a great fight in the current. I would recommend an impregnated rod, and I have the best results with smaller Clousers and Soft Hackle streamers. I try to tie smaller flies that look big, as they are easier to cast with bamboo. As with all fishing in the salt, everything needs to be rinsed and cleaned thoroughly everytime out. It's a wonderful way to enjoy bamboo in a great fishery.

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gmflyfish
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#4

Post by gmflyfish »

Sweetgrass is making a series of Saltwater rods. three and four piece for travel along with 6 sided and 8 sided rods. talk to Jerry Kustich about care of rods in the salt.

Gregg

16pmd
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#5

Post by 16pmd »

I definitely wouldn't use the Perfects in the salt. They are highly susceptible to corrosion, even with lots of care.

Robert Swift
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#6

Post by Robert Swift »

Thanks so much for the advice!

Pvansch1, that record striper caught off Clinton was taken out of MY honey-hole at six mile reef! My fish, my fish!!! Funny thing is, I've met two dozen guys who say it was THEIR honey-hole. Can you imagine such audacity? MY fish! ;-)

hat, I needed that help on choosing flies. “Smaller flies that look big,” I'll remember that. I suspect you're right that my uncle's orvis impregnated is the best bamboo I have for salt.

Gmflyfish, I'll try to check out Jerry's rods. I'll be interested to see if any of my uncles rods are similar to Jerry's.

16pmd, reels -- I've hesitated at mounting the Hardy perfects. But I have three of them. If I don't use them here, it's doubtful anyone in the family ever will. I should probably use one and sell the others. In my defense, I won't fish the reel hard. I walk to the rocks, cast awhile and walk home. Neither the reel or myself are likely to get wet, unless it rains.

I should probably purchase a back-up saltwater reel in any case. Is there a moderately priced saltwater reel I could buy that has classic styling?

Anyone else with thoughts on using a 3 3/4” Hardy reel for saltwater?

Lastly, thanks very much for the encouragement! I was concerned that even thinking about fishing bamboo in saltwater might be a great and egregious faux pas! Your enthusiasm squashed that and has me revved up to get out there.

Tx, Robert

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teter
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#7

Post by teter »

I do a fair amount of saltwater fishing with bamboo, especially impregnated Orvis rods like the Shooting Star. No, I wouldn't use a Perfect. You can pick up a classic (post-Wedding Cake) Fin Nor for the price of a Perfect or even less, and they're made for the salt. Len Codella (codella.com) and Bud Frasca (northwestclassictackle.com) usually have some good used saltwater reels from the 50s and 60s at decent prices. Have fun!

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reidrods
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#8

Post by reidrods »

Robert,

I fish bamboo in the salt. Rod has held up for several years of tough surf casting. Next one I'll hollow build. For a reel I use a Pflueger 1498 and spend some time with it when I'm done. Usually cast a 9 wt, but sometimes use a 325 grain shooting head. Large Gartside soft hackles on stainless hooks and Gartside gurglers are my favorite besides the usual Clousers. Have fun.
Willis

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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#9

Post by 16pmd »

Saltwater coming into your Perfect from the line or ocean spray will definitely do a number on a Perfect unless you spend a lot of time after every use cleaning it up. It's just not the right tool for the job - basically exposed metal instead of anodized and with lots of extra nooks and crannies to develop corrosion with a separate side plate.

For the value of a Perfect you can get a serviceable saltwater reel, anodized and with a real drag. You could sell one or more Perfects and buy something much better suited to your fishing. I'd suggest contacting Jim Williams at just-reels.com. He's a contributor here, knows reels as well as anyone and sells reels in a wide range of prices.

Robert Swift
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#10

Post by Robert Swift »

O.K. -- you convinced me. I won't use the 3 3/4” Perfect for stripers. I also hope you'll forgive my ignorance in all this, but I am brand new to this fly-fishing.

Teter, Reidrods, 16pmd,

Into the wee hours I looked over all the reels at the Len Codella and Bud Frasca websites -- targeting Fin-nors and Pleugers. I also checked out the astonishing offerings at just-reels.com. I'll try to call Jim Williams today. Aesthetically, I'm attracted to his Peerless reels, but they are costly. Frankly, I've never even seen reels at this level. I'm hoping one of these suppliers might be interested in a trade.

I also discovered a Shakespeare 1899 HE among my uncle's kit. It says “steelhead trout” on the side. This Shakespeare appears a bit sturdier than the Hardy's and the finish seems more substantial. I have no clue whether it might be appropriate in saltwater. Advice?

I truly appreciate the advice on this board. Last night I read the thread on line selection and even ordered a Cortlandt “peach” for a #4 freshwater rod. Might as well be prepared for anything!

Many thanks,

Robert

searun
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#11

Post by searun »

Robert,

For the last few years I've used an Orvis impregnated rod for my Puget Sound beach fishing.
I recently purchased a couple of impregnated Sharps rods to use as well, just to add a little variety.
These are all pretty tough rods suited to the salt.
I am using Pflueger "Sal-Trout" reels with Boeshield protection. They're inexpensive to replace if meltdown occurs, and work fine for searun cutthroat and the occasional smaller salmon that happens along. A large striper in the surf would test this reel, but schoolies would be a blast with this setup.
Have fun with whatever you choose. Greg

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tightloops
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#12

Post by tightloops »

Seychelles bonefish on an 8', 5-weight cane rod and Abel Super 4 reel. Can't remember when I had so much funhttp://classicflyrodforum.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=65&t=55801#

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ibookje
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#13

Post by ibookje »

Which marvelous trout rod did you use for these bones Tom?

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GrassSticks
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#14

Post by GrassSticks »

Robert

I've used 8' 2/1 Orvis impregnated, J.M.Reid 8' 2/1 Heddon 0f taper in saltwater with Pflueger and J.W. Young reels and have never had any problems in the past. Just remember, as stated above, to rinse your gear thoroughly after using. I generally will rinse the line & reel very well once, let them dry, then rinse again. Lubricate both after the second rinse and dry. Takes less than 2 hrs total so you can fish on the morning and afternoon tides. Rinse off the rod, and dry it. I use micro-fiber towels as they absorb quite a bit of moisture. Not very much different than you'd use after a day of normal fresh water fishing, IMHO.

Really looking forward to getting back home and using my J.M.Reid 8'8" 3/2 6/7wt spliced ferrule, impregnated "Cutty 88" he made for me just for sea-runs. :D

You can see it in the post "made a new rod lately version 1.2" Nice!

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tightloops
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#15

Post by tightloops »

The rod was made by one of our local makers Lumart Wiechers who sadly emigrated to Australia some years ago. It was a powerful rod, darkly flamed which he and I nicknamed "Black Coffee".

Robert Swift
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#16

Post by Robert Swift »

Greg, I love your part of the country and hope one day to sail Puget Sound. I guess everything out there is made of wood – boats, buildings, fishing rods., I didn't see any bamboo trees on my last visit but somewhere you probably have a forest of bamboo the size of oaks! ;-)

Tightloops, beautiful bone-fish!

Grassticks, for saltwater, impregnated rods are obviously popular here. My uncle's impregnated apparently ended up with another relative. What I have is his Payne salmon rod. The other rod that I have is a 6 ½' Payne that had never been out of the tube until I got it. It was like opening a time capsule.

Last week, I started fly-fishing from our beach (it's probably more accurate to call it casting practice) and watching Joan Wolf and Lefty Kreh videos. I'm getting pretty consistent out to about 40'.

I still need to find a reel and keep missing Jim Williams. The only reels I've found locally are Temple Forks. They seem to be nicely made.

Thanks once again, I sincerely appreciate all the advice.

Robert

searun
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#17

Post by searun »

[quote="Robert Swift"]Greg, I love your part of the country and hope one day to sail Puget Sound. I guess everything out there is made of wood – boats, buildings, fishing rods., I didn't see any bamboo trees on my last visit but somewhere you probably have a forest of bamboo the size of oaks! ;-)

Wooden boats, bamboo rods and searun cutthroat just seem to be made for each other.
I've owned a couple of wooden sloops and sailing on the Sound is special. San Juan Islands in the north sound and quiet nooks and crannies with quiet anchorages are found in the south sound, with Seattle half way in between. Keep in mind that light air prevails here in summer, but shoulder seasons can blow hard. Also, lots of plastic mega-yachts around these days. The Wooden Boat festival though is still well attended in Port Townsend every September.
All year around can be good for searuns off the beaches if you know where to go. Look me up if you're ever out this way and we'll see if we can find some.

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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#18

Post by Broken Rod »

A word to the wise. I fished a Pflueger Medalist for pollock and the spool warped. I got a new spool and the same thing happened. Large pollock put too heavy a strain on that model, and so would heavier stripers. In my ignorance, I used a Zwarg 3/0 multiplier for sharks, rinsed carefully after each use, but the aluminum spool pitted, not bad but pitts were there. The dumbest move I ever made was shark casting with a E. vom Hofe 6/0 once owned by rodmaker Wm. Mitchell. Luckily, I only used it a couple of times. You can't beat an impregnated rod:)
"He started off in the wood-turning trade."
Profile on Fred Thomas, 1906

Author:
Successful Shark Fishing (1996)
Classic & Antique Fly Fishing Tackle (1997, 2002)
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)

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beach caster
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#19

Post by beach caster »

I also fish a bamboo rod for some of my beach fishing for sea runs. Any of the impregnated Orvice or Sharps rod a good choice. I think I will also look into having a rod made specifically for our wonderful beach fishing up here in B.C. Why not fish what you like for all your fishing?
D >~)>

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piscator
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Re: Bamboo in Saltwater?

#20

Post by piscator »

I am living and fishing at the Baltic Coast, where the water is salty but not as salty as a real marine environment (15 instead of 35 g/kg); however, corrosion is our partner and the most affected place is where the snakes go under the wraps. So, if you are looking for a saltwater rod make sure that the rings are saltwater resistant (there are very nice snakes for fresh water, that corrode after the first use), and use reel seats without wooden inserts. Jürgen

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