Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

This board is for discussing concerns of fishing bamboo fly rods. Examples would be, lines, actions, classic and modern makers actions and the like.

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Pfphantom Pfisherman
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#21

Post by Pfphantom Pfisherman »

Rolf Jacobsen wrote: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.

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I can certainly believe that!
What a great suggestion and first rod!
Easily understood why you still own it.

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mcsteff
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#22

Post by mcsteff »

Yes

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doloresboy
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#23

Post by doloresboy »

uniphasian wrote: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.
Wow! A Belgium Browning 12 Light for a Maxwell Leonard. That's interesting to me. Probably a pretty fair trade but its hard to get my arms around cutting loose an A5 Light.

I still have my first. W&M Stream & Lake. Low grade but cast just like any other 8642. Maybe a little quicker than a Granger 8642.

Matt

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teter
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#24

Post by teter »

Yes, both my first bamboo fly rod and the first one I actually fished with regularly. The first was my grandfather's 9 1/2-foot Montague Gaspe salmon rod. The first one I regularly fished -- and still fish -- is an 8-foot 4 3/8 oz. Battenkill 2/2. (the Gaspe weighs more than twice that much). The Battenkill was the first bamboo rod I ever caught a trout on, the first one I ever caught a bass on and the first one I ever caught a bonefish on.
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Montague Gaspe

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Battenkill rod and reel, both made in 1969

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Rolf Jacobsen
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#25

Post by Rolf Jacobsen »

This is very, very nice.............
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SpringCreek
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#26

Post by SpringCreek »

My first bamboo rod is long gone as are my second and third. I do have, however, the first bamboo rod I made.
Then as it was, then again it will be. Though the course may change sometimes, rivers always reach the sea. - Led Zeppelin, 10 Years Gone

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CDCdun
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#27

Post by CDCdun »

I still have my first. It is a mike brooks 7' 4 weight that he gifted me when I was a poor college student. I could never part with it. It's also the only rod I have that I didn't make.

Jake

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Southernangler
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#28

Post by Southernangler »

No. In 1974 I splurged and bought an Orvis "Madison" 8 1/2 ft 8 weight rod for steelheading. I couldn't cast it worth a damn. My guide couldn't cast it. I hated it.

I kept it for many years out of sentimental reasons. Bought numerous graphite rods in the meantime. Finally started to buy bamboo rods again, starting with a 7 1/2 foot Duracane from Len Codella, which is an absolutely honey. Decided I should get rid of the Orvis, if I could.

I sold it on "the auction site" and offered a free return. I was afraid the buyer would realize what a dud it was and send it back. I sold it for several hundred dollars and held my breath. The buyer emailed me and told me how delighted he was with the rod! He had looked up who had built it. He had two other rods by the same maker and this rod completed his "set." He couldn't have been happier with his purchase and this taught me a good lesson. Rather than leave an unwanted rod in the closet, there is someone out there who will love it!

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owenscaddis
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#29

Post by owenscaddis »

Yes, a 7.5 ft Jenkins 4/5 weight rod. The rod was purchased from Len Codella per his suggestion for a 1st bamboo rod.

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Denniske1976
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#30

Post by Denniske1976 »

Probably not the right place for me to reply, but:

Yes I still have my first cane rod, a Sharpe's of Aberdeen "The Featherweight" with "matching" reel (Hardy "The Featherweight"). Not that much to say about it since I only started fishing with cane last year, I'm only 37 you know ;-) So probably one of the "youngins" that went from carbon to cane. I have two carbon rods (Hardy Classic "The Featherweight" 7ft #3 and an Orvis ClearWater 764-3) but I use my cane rods almost exclusively now... somehow I get by much better with my cane rods on a small stream, especially my Sharpe's 7ft #3 (the other being a 7ft #5).

Piccie of fish with rod and reel:
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Dennis
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Double D
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#31

Post by Double D »

Hi Dennis,

this place is definitely the right one to post no matter how old you are or for how long you have been fishing cane now. I want to thank you and all who have posted so far. Great !

Dirk

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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#32

Post by Rio Grande King »

Absolutely! An Orvis 7/4, built in 1975 and bought new from Hunter-Bradlee in Dallas in 1980. The rod still casts better than I do.Image

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Tim Marchetti
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#33

Post by Tim Marchetti »

I do still have the my first bamboo rod and I did build it. However it is not the one that I recently acquired. I built my first rod in 1985 while in college on planing forms that I machined in highschool. It is a 7ft. 5wt. with one tip that start out life at 7'6" with bamboo sleeve over ferrules and copper tubing slide bands and guides off a broken rod someone had given me. The thin bamboo ferrule broke after about a year. I stripped the rod and cut it down to it's present length, installed a $3 aluminum locking reelseat and plated brass ferrules. This is still my favorite rod to fish and it has been used hard.
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bluesjay
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#34

Post by bluesjay »

Hi Guys, No, not my first, that's a sad story about a 7' Orvis purchased A&F in San Fransisco in 1965. I have my second, an 8', 2pc., with the 12/64's ferrule. My wife secretly bought it for me at 'Anglers All' in Salt Lake City in 1976 while I was looking at the new graphite crap. She had it shipped to a small sporting goods store in Big Piney, Wy. It was a total surprise Christmas present! We had the tape recorder running, so........ I still have the first rod I made, a 7 1/2' supposed Garrison taper. It's kinda stouter than intended. It fishes fine. Jay Edwards

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fishbates
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#35

Post by fishbates »

Yep still have my 8-1/2 south bend rod one tipper
I restored it some time ago before I knew much
Put more guides on it then when she was first built
At least I didn't take the name off.
Have it to my brother in law since it was sold by Meyer and franks
A clothing store in Portland Or where he worked
I got her back a few years ago and fished the Russian river that flows into the Kenai river for reds had a blast hooked several and she held up well
Just look at her now as my first bamboo rod
I was so excited to buy her for 15-20 bucks and thought the bamboo to be so beautiful
Dave

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fishbates
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#36

Post by fishbates »

fishbates wrote:Yep still have my 8-1/2 south bend rod one tipper
I restored it some time ago before I knew much
Put more guides on it then when she was first built
At least I didn't take the name off.
Have it to my brother in law since it was sold by Meyer and franks
A clothing store in Portland Or where he worked
I got her back a few years ago and fished the Russian river that flows into the Kenai river for reds had a blast hooked several and she held up well
Just look at her now as my first bamboo rod
I was so excited to buy her for 15-20 bucks and thought the bamboo to be so beautiful

Wow some of you started out first class Rolf that EC Powell rod what a way to start bamboo I dimdn't see my first ec till 10 years into it
I have 2 8-1/2 rods I just love em
Dave
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bamboocollector11
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#37

Post by bamboocollector11 »

Yes, an old 9' 3/1 Montague from my Father in-law back in 1986. It was my first fly rod and I have always kept it, so that some day I could give it to my son so that it will be a rod fished by both his grandfather & me.

Tight lines,
Ed

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Double D
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#38

Post by Double D »

Hats off to you Tim an Jay,

I have found my first rod among half a dozen rods my father came back with from one of his trips to Bavaria. That was when I was in highschool. One year later two nodes on the tip had tiny cracks with fibers lifted. I tried to fix them but without success. I was disappointed and threw the tip with three cracked nodes in total into the trasher. I guess those cracks had something to to with Sharpe's method of impregnation. Then I went to University and began to modify rods to my liking, stripped some off, rewrapped them, put one or two new grips on, built up a blank during my final exams and so on. What a surprise to the maker when he realised what I had done to his rod (not everything worked my way...) BUT unlike you I have never stepped into making my own blanks.

So I bow myself to all of you who have made this great leap forward ( many more on this forum are makers than I was thinking of...) Thanks for all inside views...

Dirk

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Double D
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#39

Post by Double D »

Scott, Ken, Pat, Rolf, Matt, Jake, Dave, Ed and all others behind their forum names: your contributions to this thread are much appreciated...

Dirk

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Royalpark
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Re: Do you still have your first bamboo rod?

#40

Post by Royalpark »

Yep! It's the third from the bottom, bought it circa 1985 at a flea market for
$30.00. Calcutta cane, stamped Meadowbrook Trademark on the butt cap,
9 1/2 ft, 3/2 all sections full length, tight ferules, blue velvet form case. I've
fished it a few times, sweet slow action.
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