Just wanted to let you know I finally got some time to do some fishing.
A few years ago I had the chance to read the book “Casting a Spell” by George Black. From what I remember about the book it gives a short history of bamboo fly rods and rod builders. Ever since reading that book, I have had a real interest in bamboo fly rods and was hoping to one day fish one. Well with the advent of the internet and the Speypages website acquiring one became a reality. I was able to hook up with a really nice guy Zack that gave me a really good deal on two Sharpes cane rods.
A few years ago I had the chance to read the book “Casting a Spell” by George Black. From what I remember about the book it gives a short history of bamboo fly rods and rod builders. Ever since reading that book, I have had a real interest in bamboo fly rods and was hoping to one day fish one. Well with the advent of the internet and the Speypages website acquiring one became a reality. I was able to hook up with a really nice guy Zack that gave me a really good deal on two Sharpes cane rods.
The first one is a 12’ 8/9 spliced joint and the other is a 13’ 8/9 spliced joint. I am mainly fishing the 12’er rod to get it dialed in before working on the 13’er. Due to the weight of the bamboo rods I had to get a new reel to help balance the rod. I ended up talking with Tim and ended up ordering a River Spey reel from The Spey Reel Company. To figure out what fly line I needed I consulted Poppy “the spey guru” from The Red Shed fly shop and before I knew it the fly lines were sitting in my mailbox. Well after everything was assembled I took the rod out one afternoon to test out the new toy.
I think Zack packed the rod with some extra mojo because the first day I took it out I landed a nice sized white travally. I didn’t really expect to catch anything because the tide was so high but it was a nice way to break in the rod. Sometimes the hardest fish to catch on any new rig is the first one. Once it tastes blood look out. This day I used the 8/9 wt fly line. I think it felt a little light for my style of casting and took lots of effort to cast so I made a mental note to try out the 9/10 wt line next.
The next time I took it out was on another afternoon fishing with Clay.
We only fished for couple of hours but I was able to hook and land a nice sized bone. I can’t really explain the feeling of fighting a nice sized fish on a bamboo rod but it feels really cool. The rod is really sensitive and you can feel every move the fish makes. The icing on the cake was to finally hear the deep growl from the drag of the River Spey reel.
Maybe next time I’ll bring the go pro camera and try to record a long run because it’s something that you need to hear. Even Clay could hear the reel the reel from where he was fishing. Prior to fishing this time I made some modifications to my setup that made fishing much more enjoyable. Instead of the 8/9 wt line I used the 9/10 wt line which felt better on the rod. I was able to make longer casts with much less effort. I also added some weight to the reel with the help of a good friend Glen. Glen is my go to guy whenever I need some tweaking done on my spearguns and he found a way I could on the reel. That extra weight made a world of difference for the balance of the rod and I didn’t have to “fight” the rod all day. I emailed Tim and he’s working on some parts that will add additional weight to the reel and looking forward to trying them out.
Saturday morning I was able to get out for a little bit to do some additional testing on the bamboo rod. This time I wanted to try out a Beulah Tonic head that I have for my Beulah 12’ 7” 7/8 wt spey rod. So far this is the line I like the best on the bamboo rod. I was able to make some tight casts with very little effort. There were not many fish around but I was able to squeeze in a small bone.
I think I’ll talk to Clay and see if I can order the Beulah 8/9 tonic spey line and see if that one will work better. Anyhow it’s always fun to experiment and fine tune the fly fishing gear.
