I have always wanted to fish with a split cane rod, ever since I was lent one a few years ago. I normally fish with a Winston rod (I know - I spoiled myself may years ago when living in the US and treated myself to one) which is quite "fast" and sometimes is a bit tricky to cast on some of the more difficult stretches, (at least thats my excuse) and I must be one of the best trout spookers in the Club, so I wanted to try a split cane slower rod. The trouble is though that most split cane rods are very expensive. After a bit of research I found a Chinese website for a company who sell Chinese made bamboo (Tonkin) rods - https://www.cnflyfishing.com/. The rods are made by a company "Rodcore" who also sell reels, lines and so on. I ordered a 7ft 6in #4 rod last week and it arrived in five days (Fedex). I couldn't find any reviews of these Chinese rods online so didn't know what to expect as regards quality but am pleasantly surprised. The quality and finish are very good. They are very reasonably priced - not the £two or three thousand demanded by custom builders. If anyone would like details please get in touch.
I've had a few dry casts on the lawn and it feels really nice, quite soft, much slower than my Winston and it is possible to drop a fly quite accurately provided you go for accuracy as opposed to distance. I will try it for real this evening.
I have two Hardy Palakona rod's that I fish with and I can spook Goldfish.
Great comments Pete, I love the idea of bamboo rods and you've done well scouring ebay (I know atleast one other club member who does the same ... no names ... Henry!).
After my last post, my wife encouraged me to get Sandy to hand build a glass rod in memory of her mother, who introduced me to fly fishing (no comments about mothers in law ... Ian) .
Sandy involved us in every step of the process, helping us select the right blank for the type of fishing the club has and then choosing components to match the gorgeous McFarland Spruce Creek special 3wt blank.
The quality of the hand build is amazing with all the features I wanted, a fab glassfibre rod tube and bespoke tweed rod bag. I'm looking forward to fishing dries with it in the coming season.
The price for this is equivalent to a mid range rod from the major manufacturers.
Nice post. I fish bamboo pretty much exclusively as does my friend Warren who has just joined the club. John Gierach was my gateway into the world a number of years back and I was lucky enough to talk with him more recently and he said that he started to fish it as it felt counter culture to do so. I liked this!
I have a friend, Luke Bannister, who builds bamboo rods and I've been lucky enough to own a few from him. He has a new taper that I think is the best he has ever come up with, it feels like he is at the peak of his powers right now!
I am interested to hear how you get on with the rod and hope you enjoy it. I do get what you mean about the price of bamboo rods but with premium end graphite rods through £1000 now that this makes builders like Luke and others like Arfield and French look good value.
Although I don't buy tackle for investment, I know builders want their rods fished, they do hold their value and do actually go up too. This can sometimes make the decision a little easier from a price point of view.
Over the winter I have scoured Ebay and have bought some rods from Hardy and Partridge for no more than £200. There is inherant risk but I've been lucky and plan to fish them. One of the Hardy's, a CC De France is one I've always wanted and has plenty of life and hopefully fish in it!
I'd echo what Jon says about Sandy Nelson. He makes up some wonderful glass and graphite on nice blanks that are worth considering. He has Steffen graphite rods that are deeper loading and packed full of feel. The other plus about glass and bamboo rods is that they're wonderful for playing fish.
Good luck!
Pete
Great post and question. I'm like you in wondering how bamboo rod would fish specifically for dry fly use but i went a different route to get a slower actioned rod. I got a Taniwha glass fibre 7ft 6" 4 weight which is perfect for many of my fly fishing needs on the club waters. The slower action and easier rod loading with a shorter length of line out of the tip has definitely changed my success rate at closer range.
Another highly recommended option is to get Sandy Nelson to custom build a glass rod specifically for your needs.