Bamboo vs. Graphite

[Grizzly Wulff]

Several people have insinuated that bamboo rods are not capable of casting a distance. I take exception to that insinuation; poor casters will never be able to cast a distance and putting a fast taper graphite rod in their hands won't change the outcome. I have a 9' Leonard 40M for a 6wt that will throw all the line you might like to throw all day long. It's not heavy, or clunky, just a dream to cast.

A number of years ago I came across the following in a book by Gordon M Wickstrom, a professor from the University of Colorado in Boulder, titled "Notes From an Old Fly Book." In it he writes:

"Back in the sixties, feeling a little pilgrimish myself, I was able to drive up from Palo Alto on several Sunday mornings to cast on these ponds (referring to the fly casting ponds in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco), struggling hard to toss a fly eighty feet. There was one morning, using my big eight-and-a-half foot, five-strip cane rod with a #9 line, doing my very best, when a man sidled up to me - a club member I assumed. He remarked briefly on my rod, asking if he might try it. Sure. He took the rod, planted his feet with care, made a single false cast, double-hauled (right there on those ponds where the double-haul was conceived), and sent the fly clear across the water and into the shrubbery beyond. I watched unbelieving, as the narrow loop of line seemed to climb up and up into the sky before turning over and dropping the fly back to earth. "Nice rod," he said, handing it back. "That's 130 feet." And walked away....."