Bamboo rods

[John 3:16]

Anybody here have knowledge of the Tea Stick Rod co. and their products? Their Boo rods look really nice and are priced well enough but are they quality rods?

[October Woods]

I was asked to review one at the Super 'Boo Gathering in Feb, here is what I posted about it.

The Tea Stick is a clone of the Garrison 193 a 6'9" 2 pc rod designed for 3 or 4 wt lines. I've cast a few 193 clones but never an original.

First look:
The rod maker isn't trying to use Garrisons approach to the way the rod looks, i.e. the grip is not like Garrisons but the cork is well fit and without major voids and of a nice length for comfort for a rod using a 3 wt line, the reel seat is wooden and clean, good varnishing job, the furniture is pleasant and nicely finished.

Looking at the main body of the rod there are no seams showing glue lines and the cane is better than what I have seen on past versions of Chinese cane, i.e. the grain is relatively straight and uniform so there has been a lot learned in choosing cane for the rod. Node work is good, not sloppy but lacks brilliance, this isn't actually a negative comment it's just different than what I'm accustomed to looking at other rods. Heat treating appears to be done using a flame in a spiral as evidenced by the dark area that spirals the rod as the rest of the blank has a golden appearance.

The wraps are tight and nicely done with a few voids here and there but not detracting and the ferrules are of decent quality and good fit. The thing that I found disturbing is the feel of the action did not follow what I'd expect a Garrison 193 taper to feel like, it was overly parabolic and anemic and when checking for the rods backbone I found it did not exhibit that it had any. The rod will cast out to 30' and if this is the intent of what one wants in a rod it will do the job but has no reserve power beyond that again not up to the 193's taper.

Final conclusion is that I believe this is one of the better made Chinese offerings I've seen and there's no doubt the makers are learning and growing but I feel that for just under $500 there are still far better alternatives in used rods out there. So for the time being I'm still not ready to spend any of my money on a Chinese production rod .............

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Oct Woods
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[John 3:16]

Thank you sir, that was well written. I have seen alot of nice used rods on Ebay for around $350