Bamboo rods for flymphs

[raven4ns]

Jon, these guys are a great bunch of people, they share willingly their time, experience as well as tying material on occasion. I know because I have been the recipient of their largesse.

[DOUGSDEN]

Jon,
Welcome to the best forum in the world! You will find no one anywhere more qualified and more willing to help you in this new adventure than the men and women who make this a special place to be! I think you will find flymphs and all their country cousins quite addicting in history, tying, and fishing! Enjoy this site and contribute often! By the way, there's a quiz on Thursday!
Dougsden

[Tom Smithwick]

Here is the 10 foot bamboo tenkara rod. It is 3 piece, and aggressively hollowed. It seems to work fine, and the weight is withing reason. The action is fairly slow and full flexing, as it should be to facilitate playing fish without a reel. I believe I could have put guides and a reel seat on it and had a long one or two weight wet fly rod instead. Interesting project. My first attempt was an 11 foot version, which I did convert to a fly rod, as it was uncomfortable without the weight of a reel to balance it. Going this long with split cane for light line is really pushing the limits because of the weight of the material.

[Smuggler]

How neat is that?

What for taper do you have this based on?

[Tom Smithwick]

Nothing fancy about the taper. It is just a straight taper of .00275/inch, starting at .050 for the tip. Since all you have to do is flick the tip, there is no need for anything sophisticated. The secret to making something this long with a slow taper work is in the hollowing and the ferrule construction. Excess weight will make the rod floppy and useless.

[letumgo]

Tom - That is a wonderful Tenkara rod. I love the idea of combining the two traditions together. Kudos.

How did you handle the tip top/lillian connection? Seems like that would be another design challenge.

[tie2fish]

A fascinating challenge I would think, Tom. Did you undertake this project strictly on your own or is there literature translated from Japanese that discusses it? Would it be reasonable to assume that the Japanese were using bamboo Tenkara rods for a long, long time before the advent of polymers?

[Tom Smithwick]

Ray - I am going to do the lilian a little differently. I intend to use a loop of 30# micron backing whip finished to opposite sides of the tip. I will tie the jam knot at the end of the loop, which will be about 1 1/2" long. Only because the 30# stuff is the heaviest hollow dacron I have, otherwise I would use a single strand like the graphite guys have.

Bill - You are right that the Japanese used bamboo for centuries. To my knowledge, they only used grown bamboo sections, not split and glued. Of course, they are experts with bamboo, and the top line rods are works of art, using different species of cane for different sections of the rod, and meticulously finished. They are worth thousands of dollars. You can still easily buy rods made with grown cane in Japan at different price points and quality. I have handled a couple mid range rods in the collection of the Catskill FF Museum, and they are very fishable, light in the hand and with slower action than graphite. they are joined together with bamboo ferrules. The really high end rods are and were telescopic, just like the graphite ones. They are the true works of art that tend to be owned by rich collectors. I have a couple photos of the Catskill museum rods, and will post them shortly.
There may well be a few out there who experimented with split cane Tenkara before me, but I am not familiar with any examples. I know a few people took known fly rod tapers and made short tenkara rods, but I wanted to start from scratch. I did feel qualified to try, since I have fooled with rod tapers for a long time, and have also fished with tenkara rods for a few years. I am not ready to declare success, and definitely not ready to declare this taper can't be improved. I need to fish the thing in different conditions with different lines and see how it acts. So far, I think I have a powerful caster that will handle the heavier lines easily. It remains to be seen if it is crisp enough to cast the light lines.

[Tom Smithwick]

Grown bamboo tenkara rod

[jong4029]

Hey guys.
Sorry for the long delay. Been transforming my gun shop into a rod making shop. Lots of work but getting there. I have a mentor who is a master rod maker helping to keep me focussed and going in the rite direction. Along with setting the shop up, we have been splitting, and getting through rough plaining. All this along with finding and refurbishing the plains, building jigs, and ovens and soaking tubes ETC. Gets buisy and one looses time fast.
Reading through all the old posts gets the blood going. Been really wanting to go fishing, But all the places are snowy or icey, and with my disabilities and such I really need to be on stable ground. Really looking forward to fishing soft hackles and flymphs this year. Trying out all the new flies and tricks learned over the last year.
Thanks to all who replied to my last post. really nice to meet folks on line but even more exciting ti think about meeting you all on the water some day. Any of you comming through Albuquerque any time be sure to get hold of me. There is always a place to take a break or just come hang out and go fishin.
I will be working the Northern border of New Mexico and Colorado a lot this year. Got the Rio down some what but a finicky river, and the Chama is schedualled for the next year. There are a lot of other streams and tribs and such in between all the big ones to explore also.
Will post the progress of the rod, and fishing trips to come.
Have fun
Jon