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.
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.