The Basics Concerning Bamboo Fly Fishing Rods

There is no doubt that the best fly fishing rod material is good bamboo properly selected, cured, split, glued, and correctly proportioned. It possesses strength combined with lightness, resiliency, pliancy, power and balance in greater degree than either steel or solid woods.

There are a couple of kinds of bamboo canes that rod makers are using these days, they are male and female, and they are either Tonkin or Calcutta. But as of now Calcutta is becoming a lot harder to come by then it was in the past. Therefore a good amount of the bamboo fly fishing rods that are made, are constructed using a good piece of Tonkin cane.

Male Calcutta on the other hand, is supposed to be superior to either the female or Tonkin. The cheapest split cane is known as steel vine or African cane. It is light colored and makes up into good, inexpensive bamboo fly fishing rods.

The way that bamboo fly rods are made, is by splitting the piece of bamboo, then the sticks are glued together. There are two types of construction when it comes to bamboo fly rods, these are 6 and 8, 6 strip being the more common type used.

A lot of the rod makers say that the 8 strip rods are more durable than the 6 strip. This has never really been tested or proven though, more expensive though as they take more time to make than the 6 strip section bamboo fly rods.

Because there is more labor that is involved, this will make the eight strip rod more expensive than the six. This is another reason why I would stick with a six strip rod if possible, it is all about personal preference anyways.

When a bamboo fly rod is made, it is made in two layers. One is in the middle and of course there is an outer layer also. This is also known as a double built rod, making them much more stronger than your tradition fly fishing rod.

An English innovation is the steel center rod which consists of a fine piece of well-tempered steel running as a core through sections of regular split bamboo. The makers claim this construction gives a rod of superior casting power with only of an ounce added weight. Friends who possess rods of this kind are enthusiastic admirers of this construction for heavy fishing.