My First Bamboo Rod

[chugbug27 0]

Thanks all, I've had a blast with it this week on the Upper Sac. And yes, I forgot to do the nose grease thing and then had to do the knee thing, and even then barely got the thing apart. I didn't have time to shop for a reasonably priced vintage reel (thanks for that tip on Angler's Roost), but I found one that balances the (very heavy) rod well, a vintage Olympic in the box for $15. It's a Medalist knock-off, but it works well. The rod is definitely showing its age (the tip has fallen off a couple times after applying the nose grease, the handle rattles back and forth a little, and all three sections get misaligned here and there requiring me to take them apart and realign them on a few times a day), but I'm loving the bamboo feel. I'm hooked... The 9' length is a lot to handle, but I'm finding that if I put less muscle into it and more timing my casts are better and it doesn't feel so heavy with the heavy reel to balance it. The heavy reel gives momentum to the cast. The 9' length also comes in handy for mending. I'm also really liking the sensitivity and its flexibility in handling fish. Even small trout play well with it. Haven't yet caught anything over 10-12" on this trip... Maybe today.

[rstaight 0]

Something about the extra heft of bamboo that seems to help in windy conditions.

[chugbug27 0]

Post-fishing report...

😔

Broke off the tip on my last day. The rod came with a second tip, but that second one was already short when I bought the rod... I noticed the tip top section bent and tried to bend it back... Snap

😱

Humiliating, disappointing, but I'll be back for more. $135 out the window, but I suppose I can get $50 or so of it back for the rod with one tip short. It still fishes, just not with that elegant finesse... As I said, humiliating and disappointing beyond words.

 

Meanwhile I did manage to catch and release well over a dozen nice wild rainbow trout in my three days there. I really did enjoy casting and catching on the bamboo. Big lesson learned.

 

A little off topic, but in the evening on day two I caught the last meaningful golden stonefly activity, in the upper reaches of the river at a place called the Cantara Loop. Incredible. I had one stimulator in my box, which caught a few before I lost it, then fumbled around trying to match with other big stuff without much success while trout we're going bananas for the egg dropping stones, until I tried a large pmd cripple pattern, caught a few more on that before dark. It was tremendous.

[rstaight 0]

Sorry to hear about the rod. Ask around for some bamboo builders in your area. You could have a new tip made. Won't be cheap.