Who Fishes Wood?

[redietz]

To my thinking, 7 1/2 feet is about the shortest cane rod that will give decent control for fishing dries.

Although I mostly agree, the biggest trout I've caught this year was while I fishing one of Ed Shenk's five footers. (In commemoration of his passing -- otherwise I don't find the rod at all practical.)

[Tom Smithwick]

I prefer bamboo for wet fly fishing primarily for its ability to protect tippets both on the strike and when playing a fish. I prefer it for dry flies too, but more for the slower pace and accuracy you can develop. I am not opposed to graphite, but really only for heavier line weights and longer rods. That is not to say bamboo is a magic material. It is possible to make a clunky rod with it, but there is so much information available today that most makers with any experience are making really fine rods. My own favorite for flymphs is an 8 foot 4 weight built with a taper I derived from an F E Thomas rod I refinished a long time ago. Lots of good rods both old and new mentioned in this thread. Anybody should be able to find something that suits them these days.

[letumgo]

Tom - I have a stupid questions from a non-maker (cane). How do you perserve the formula of the custom taper you mentioned above. Are these formulas shared, or are they concidered a trade secret? How does this sort of knowleged get preserved?

[Fishnkilts]

I have two cane rods, both 7' 6", a 3 and 4wt. But I'm having another cane rod made that's 8' 6" 5/6 weight for the Cache La Poudre, and it's going to be built especially for wet flies. It's based from a Dickerson taper, but will be 6 inches longer.

[bearbutt]

Wood? Only one: a 7' Allcock greenheart that took me half a decade to pry from the hands of a good friend in Ireland--. Paired with a 2 5/8 Hardy Sunbeam, it's a gem:



As for fishing grass--that's another story. It's pretty much the only thing I fish. Here are some of my favorites, which are the usual bunch I bring with me to the Adirondacks every year:



bb

[BrkTrt]

I have and fish a little 5'1" 3wt. It is awesome on the small streams I fish.

Alan

[letumgo]

bearbutt - Have you ever visited the Adirondack Museum! In Blue Mountain Lake? They have some really interesting old rods from the late 1800’s. I posted some pics quit a while ago.

I wish your old rods could tell stories. They look wise.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4365

[bearbutt]

Thanks, Ray--yes, I've visited the Blue Mountain Lake museum a couple of times--they have Nessmuk's canoe!--and so much else, as you point out!--also climbed to the fire tower overlooking the lake. My wife and I got married in a log cabin just up the road in Indian Lake....19 years ago. It's a nice area, though for the past 15 years we've been going to Wilmington and the West Branch--.

The rods do tell stories--one of them is the Vores Garrison, made in1933 for Elmer Vores, a farmer from Mahopac, NY, who had a summer cabin just down the road from the cabin I stay in in Wilmington. Not everyone who owned a Garrison was a banker or a member of the Angler's Club of NY--Vores was the kind of farmer who knew a good tool when he had one in his hands. But as his fishing buddies reported in contemporary accounts, Vores was a dry fly fisherman--it was "dry flies or nothing" as one of his friends said. So I guess there's no flymph stories here, lol.

bb

[Tom Smithwick]

Hi Ray - Nothing dumb about the taper question. There is no one answer to it, however. In the early days of cane rod making rods were almost all made in professional rod shops, and pretty much everything about the designs and process was considered a trade secret. That gradually changed over the last century as more amateurs became involved, books were written, then the internet, so a lot of knowledge is out there for the taking now that formerly could only be gained by work and persistence. There is still a wide variance in opinion about such matters. Many professionals, and some amateurs feel their tapers and other knowledge should be private, and the rest of us respect that. Others, like myself, don't mind sharing that kind of information, and there are some databases on the internet that have libraries of tapers that people have either created or measured from existing rods from now departed companies and makers. Also, there are several how to books available that have chapters on taper design, and numerous examples of well known and proven designs. Like fly fishing itself, the whole topic of rod design is open ended. There is always something else to learn, and just when you think you have it all figured out, your tastes change, and you are back to learning again. All part of the fun.

[Hankinsfly]

I do! Most of my trout fishing, unless it’s very windy, then I go to graphite. My medium action bamboo just gets shut down very easily in the wind. I fished my two Heddon rods on my trip to Colorado in July. All caught on dries and a few winged wets dropped off the back. Very many fish also took the Last Chance Cripple, which I am now a huge fan of (Rene Harrop hit a homer with that pattern). Winds would pick up daily by 11am, but by that time we had already caught plenty of fish, seen plenty of big mayflies, and were ready for a break.

I have a Heddon 35, built in the 1930’s that is just an old sweetheart. 8.5’, 1 3/4 ferrule. Then my Heddon 14, 8.5’, 2 ferrule, built in the 50’s. Highly enjoy fishing them both.

To medicate the blues I got when I returned home from my annual trip to S. Colorado, I bought myself an Orvis Battenkill, 7.5’ 3 5/8oz. Also a sweet heart. Cannot wait to fish a pair of soft hackles with this rod at my favorite Ozarks tailwater. I have Flyfishermann to thank for pointing out this rod to me.