Tagged

bamboo

7 posts tagged "bamboo".

7 posts

A split-cane fly rod with red silk wraps, a cork grip and a small silver fly reel lying in clear, riffled water over a rocky streambed

Bamboo Rod Builders Are Getting Older, and Cane Needs New Hands

Bamboo rod builders are getting older and too few new small shops are starting. Why that worries me, the hopeful side, and five ways to help.

October 15, 202612 min read

The Ross Coors Banquet Cimarron Creek, buff Coors-gold with its red center circle, mounted on a Headwaters Madison cane rod and resting on a granite boulder beside the river

Ross Coors Banquet Cimarron Creek Review: The Cimarron That Finally Got Me

I never liked the Cimarron. Then the Coors Banquet edition landed on my Madison and changed my mind. An honest review of Ross Reels' limited Colorado click-pawl collab.

September 22, 20266 min read

Mid-cast on a South Platte canyon run under ponderosa and red rock, the rod loaded and fly line arcing overhead — the feel of a rod under load is exactly what changes between graphite, glass, and cane.

Fiberglass vs Graphite vs Bamboo: Three Feels for Trout

Graphite, glass, and bamboo aren't three versions of the same rod — they're three personalities. How each is built, how it actually feels to cast, and when to fish it.

August 26, 202615 min read

an angler in a straw hat casting from a boulder on a clear freestone river, red sandstone walls and conifers rising behind him

Why Bamboo Fly Rods Are So Expensive

Why hand-built cane costs so much — 100+ hours of labor, single-source Tonkin, taper precision in thousandths, and the value-cane tier that changed the math.

July 29, 202615 min read

close-up of a bamboo cane fly rod with red thread wraps and cork grip, held over a log with line out

How a Bamboo Fly Rod Is Actually Made

What really goes into a split-cane fly rod — from a culm of Tonkin bamboo to a finished hex blank, and why it takes over 100 hours.

July 22, 202611 min read

two anglers in a drift boat below a red rock wall, the one standing in the bow casting a fly line out over the current

What Is Tonkin Cane — and Why Every Bamboo Rod Depends on One Chinese River

Why nearly every bamboo fly rod is built from one species of bamboo grown in a single small region of China — and what makes Tonkin cane work.

July 15, 20268 min read

Renato Vanzella fly fishing the Arkansas River — quiver in hand

My Fly Rod Quiver — Five Rods, Five Jobs on the South Platte

The five rods I actually fish on the South Platte, what each one is for, which reel lives on it, and the honest case for owning fewer than I do.

May 25, 202611 min read