Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

[Double D]

Since reading about Tim Marchetti getting back his first built rod and a number of board members thinking about the heritage of their personal collections the question what happened to the first bamboo rod in our life has come to my mind...

This is my first one: new grip (also of poor quality cork), new wraps, three cracked nodes in the original tip but the butt section is intact and has a graphite tip a la Kenneth Boström now.

And here is me casting it (1988)


Cheers
Double D

[Oxbow]

Ha - interesting. Actually yes I do. I very recently (2 months ago) re-found my first cane rod. It's a Orvis 7 1/2 footer for a 5 or 6 line - a kit rod that I put together over 30 years ago. I am planning to start fishing it again. What's funny is that I have owned a hell of a lot of rods since that one with many of them turned over but I still have this one.

[PYochim]

I do not. My first rod was a 3 weight Eden Cane. It was a very nice rod but not very practical. I found myself using it less and less. I decided to sell it as I don't like having cash tied up in something that doesn't get used. I replaced it with a rod that is very versatile and gets a lot of use.

As an aside I do still have my first fiberglass and first graphite rod.

[narcodog]

I do an Orvis Battenkill 7/2. It was a wedding gift in 1974, I still fish it.

I still have the first fly rod that I got for my 13th birthday in '59. Its a collapsible Bristol metal rod.

[Hellmtflies]

No I don't. My first was a 7' 2/1 4wt. Leonard Durcane. I purchased that rod from Les Shannon's Fly & Tackle Shop in Califon. N.J. in 1984/5. It was previously owned and being sold on consignment. I saw it and had to have it. I fished that bugger hard for 25 years until one day I made that regrettable mistake of not going back to unhook my fly from a tree branch. I stood my ground and pulled and tugged until, much to my chagrin, that tip section shattered. What a disheartening event. I have had a few rods since that one but none have given me the pleasure that one had for so long. It was battered, clear wraps over poor seems, clear wraps over a node that was working apart, rewrapped by a friend and the moisture cap had dislodged at some point. The tube and bag were original but the bag had been re-sewn and the tube was battered from having done it's job. What a workhorse. I didn't care if she got scratched or dinged. I didn't worry if a friend took it out for the day. I didn't care what size or how big a trout it landed as I never worried if that big fish would stress the rod. It was a simple and carefree fishing tool. I probably never wiped it down after use. Oh how I miss that bugger. What a wonderful stick that was. My Kingdom for another Leonard 7' 2/1 4wt. Duracane. Green wrap of course.

[Pfphantom Pfisherman]

Sure do, and I'll never dispose of it.
Not a collectible or high dollar rod but
a fine fishing tool that holds a ton of
sentimental value and memories.

It has needed many repairs over the years
that cost probably four times what the current
market value would be.....but, I love it!

Heddon Model 14, 8' 3/1, 2F.......

[hopkintoncane]

I do, and they will bury me with it, a 8.5 foot Montague Deerfield

[GrsdLnr]

No, I no longer have my first bamboo rod.

I do still have my second...and my third...and my fourth....and my fifth....

[hdrmd]

Yes, I do, and it has been from Kentucky to Alaska since I bought it in 1980. The 3/2 Battenkill 8 foot rod still has the CFO reel that came with it. Very portable outfit. Wouldn't part with it. DR

[tomimc]

Unfortunately, I also no longer have my first cane rod, a Jon Parker 6'/3wt that I bought from Tom up at the Slate Run Tackle shop, '96ish or so. I built a nice little quiver of cane rods over the next couple years, but then sold them off as I got back into racing bicycles and moved away from regularly harassing the little trouts. I did keep one and only one graphite rod, a Scott 6'10"/4wt G Series that is a great do it all stick that served me well in the interim years of occasional brookie escapes when I needed a time out from the racing action.

The Parker with a BigSpring brookie..'97 I think:


Celebrated my 40th birthday in oh'10 with a new 6' 8"/3wt DreamCatcher and it's been downhill from there...told myself I'd never part with that rod, but now that the rust has been shaken off of my casting, sometimes I do consider trading it out for something more in tune with my evolving technique...

[Flyman615]

I sure do. It was my Dad's 8 1/2 ft. Heddon Model 8 2F given to him about 1952 as part of a complete fly fishing outfit by a friend whom he had helped wire his house.

As a teenager I fiddled around trying to cast it with little success. But I took it with me when I was commissioned in the USAF and had it restored by Doug Merrick at the Winston shop in San Francisco in 1972. The restoration, which is better than any Model 8 ever deserved, and a new tube totaled $35.

I fished it on Hat Creek and other California streams in the 1970s. It's a rod I'd never sell.

Scott

[flyfishermann1955]

Yes, it's an H-I Tonka Prince. I purchased it from Len Codella, when he had a shop in New Jersey. I think it was late 1975 or early 1976. The rod had been re-finished by Thomas & Thomas. It has the off-white script and the olive and black rectangular decal. The original cork grip and black plastic reel seat have been replaced. It has the standard Orvis down-locking seat with the wood insert.

It was my dry fly rod for fishing in the Poconos. It saw action on Brodhead Creek, McMichael's Creek, Pocono Creek, and some native brookie water.

Thanks- Ken

[tomimc]

I will add, that although I don't have my first cane rod, I do still have my first flyrods, a pair of glass rods that were my father's from the late '60's/early 70's that we've caught many a bluegill and occasional bass with...both are 8'/6wts, a Shakespreare Wonderod and a 4pc Wright-McGill Traveller(?) that I cut my teeth with as a pre/early teen.

[BambooNut]

My first bamboo wasn't a rod, but what I call a pole. Just the culm with a string, hook, and worm that I fished at the local pond. I was 5 years old, and that was 1947.

Sure don't have it anymore.

[flyfishingpastor]

Nope. Interestingly enough, it is the ONLY bamboo rod that I've ever bought that I sold. It was a no-name 8' 6 wt. rod that I fished the heck out of for smallies. I let a lady from my church borrow it one day and she loved it and wanted to buy it. I sold it to her for exactly what I paid for it 2 or 3 years earlier.

She still fishes it, a lot.

Pat

[spruce grouse]

No. It was a Mark Ruhe version of the 206E. While it was a nice rod and I owned it for a number of years, we just never "clicked" in the way one does with the right rod. It was good enough to make me want to explore bamboo rods further, so I can't fault it. I sometimes wonder if we crossed paths now if I would feel differently about it.

[uniphasian]

Still do... a Maxwell Leonard 40-5. Traded a Belgian Browning Light 12 for it back in the mid-80's. Sweet casting rod that took awhile to learn to cast. At first, it felt like a fast rod owing to the butt taper, but it has a delicate tip and I found that it worked best to slow the whole thing down and let the tip work. All-in-all it is still a remarkable first rod and I consider myself fortunate to have started out that way.

[BobM]

Yep, still have my 7 1/2' Battenkill.

Still have the first rod I made as well. It may not be pretty, but damn it looks good in the hands of my 10 yo grandson !

[Rolf Jacobsen]

Yes I do. I purchased this from Clark Davis MANY years ago. He assured me it would make a nice “first rod” and I would not be disappointed. EC Powell, 8-1/2’, 2/2 5/6 weight. It has since visited the Steve Blake Rod Spa to look pretty again. Clark was right. I absolutely loved this rod then and still do now.

[PYochim]

Rolf, That is a beauty.