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I am now reluctantly satisfied that glass fly rods are
mechanically the equal of and perhaps often perform
better than the best bamboo rods. Not only that, they
are more reasonable in price; require little or no care;
and apparently last forever. I'll concede all that, but
never will I let another glass fly rod darken by door.
Put it down, if you will, to a burst of girlish sentiment
of the heart or middle-aged sediment on the kidneys - I'll
take split bamboo. To my mind there is no fairy wand in
creation more graceful and beautiful than a good bamboo
fly rod. They look so good; they feel so
good. Like fingerprints, no two bamboo rods are alike;
each is an individual possessed of its own unique character
and one that a fisherman can really get to know.
But these gleaming impersonal glass rods that some chemist
has conceived in a laboratory out of skimmed milk and old
box tops, these synthetic concoctions that are turned out
on an assembly line as much alike as two peas in a pod,
simply aren't for me. I'd sooner cast over glass
fish than use one. I love my bamboo fly rods and
I choose to think they have a sneaking yen for me. But
I'm afraid I can never quite fall in love with a chemist's
incestuous brain child. In short 'tis a pox I wish on all
glass rods. (Adv.: I'll sell you a dandy for five bucks.) ~ Robert Traver
Credits: Excerpt from Traver On Fishing
(Trout Madness 1960) Published by Lyons Press.
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