**## Beginners Cane
By Ed Engle**
Excerpt from Volume 2 No.4 the Angler’s Journal
"Several years ago I was at a dinner party and struck up a
conversation with another fly fisher. When I mentioned in passing
that I enjoyed fishing split cane bamboo fly rods, he looked at me
like I was some sort of cult member. And I can understand why.
There is a certain mystery to fishing cane rods, especially for those
new to bamboo, that is both seductive and frustrating.
I didn’t know anything about cane rods 20 years ago when I
started buying them at garage sales in Colorado. It didn’t take long to
learn that, unlike graphite or fiberglass fly rods, there can be very wide
variations in the quality of bamboo rods. The garage sale rods I bought
were euphemistically referred to as “wet fly” action which simply meant
that the action was so far into the handle of the rod that you could barely
cast them. Most of those rods went for $5 to $20 and were of uniformly
poor quality.
As I got more interested in cane I began to find
fly shops that handled better quality cane rods on consignment. I
made a point to always cast all the rods and note the ones that I
liked. I also began to meet people who could explain to me what
to look for in a quality cane fly rod. And finally, I became acquainted
with custom cane rod builders, such as Mike Clark, who had made a
study of casting and analyzing as many makes and models of cane
rods as he could get his hands on.
I’ll admit that my initial experience with cane was a little
uneven. I bought some poor quality rods, but I learned about
cane in the process and that was half the fun. I often stripped and
refinished and referruled my garage sale rods just for practice.
Interest in split cane fly rods has steadily increased with
the increased popularity of fly fishing in general. There are now
more custom cane rod builders working in the U.S. than there have
been in the past several decades.
More and more fly fishers are curious about cane’s reputation
for beauty, casting sensitivity, and control, but many believe that the
cost of a quality cane rod is beyond their reach. That may be true for
new custom built rods that run anywhere from $900 to $1200 on the
average, but perfectly serviceable previously owned cane fly rods are
still available for the cost of a premium graphite fly rod ($400 - $600).
There are several ways for anglers new to cane to find a rod.
The key is to talk with people who have some experience with cane rods.
You’ll find that certain rod names such as Granger, Phillipson, and
Heddon consistently come up when quality rods at reasonable prices
are mentioned. These American made rods are commonly referred to as
“production” rods. They were mass produced roughly from the 1920s
to the 1960s. The makers of these rods were able to achieve a surprisingly
consistent level of excellence when producing the rods even though they
were made in large quanitities.
Most of the production rod companies offered a number of
models of fly rods. The cane used for all the rods was good, but the
choicest material was often reserved for the premium models. Hardware
and guide wraps were top of the line on premium models. These premium
models command premium prices today, but lower and mid-level models
are affordable and still capable of offering many years of fly fishing pleasure.
**The key to judging the quality of any fly rod is to cast it. If
you like the way a cane rod casts and feel comfortable with it, that’s
important. The more rods you can cast, the more able you’ll be to
judge what you like in a cane rod. But, there can be pitfalls when
it comes to purchasing cane." ~Ed Engle
Pitfalls next time!**
Originally published January 24, 1999 on Fly Anglers Online by Ed Engle.