JC I loved your latest on your admiration for bamboo. The only rods I had growing up were bamboo.Couldn’t wait to get my hands on glass then graphite and used them since. My dads best friend was Bill Edwards and I still have a Quad that he gave me somewhere in a tube in a closet. Another buy George Varney in a tube and a f.E. Thomas rod hanging over my tying desk. Nice decoration along with my fly prints.
Bill
JC…It does kinda suprise me,That with the LF having that Quad.
That you hav’nt talked with Ron of one of your own…If I could afford one good …ok…Great Cane rod…I’d be on the phone with him in a heartbeat,For exactly that…A Quad…or an Elf…OH who am I kidding I’d like to have both…Someday…!
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
Bill
Morning JC BIGER BETTER FASTER! I like you, am looking for preformance in a rod. I, unlike you never sell anything. I still have all of the cane rods I ever bought or was given. The only good glass rods I ever fished are the SA system rods and I have a set of those and reels to match. They fished all most as well as some of my good cane rods. When graphite came a long it was no contest! They out preformed any cane rods ever made, AND it drove down the price of colectable cane. I bought 1 a year for 18 years. I only fish with them once a year. You can buy a better fishing tool for 100.00 today than the best cane rod ever made. I do love them, kinda like a 1933 Lasal a beauty to look at but not much of a race car.
Rich
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“1” face=“Verdana”>quote:</font><HR>
You can buy a better fishing tool for 100.00 today than the best cane rod ever made. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I think your parameters of “better” vary from mine. 
Jeff
I work only so that I can afford to fish
[url=http://nwcttu.tripod.com:575b4]http://nwcttu.tripod.com[/url:575b4]
Northwest CT TU web site
I understand JC’s feelings about cane completely, and share many of them. However, last weekend I went to the Metolius Fly Fishing Fair at Camp Sherman, and tried out quite a few cane rods. I came away with a beautifully casting and beautiful to look at 7’, 3/4wt made by Bellinger, for my small stream fishing. And to me, this is a high performance rod, that is truely a pleasure to fish with. I find myself presenting dries better than I ever did with my 4wt. graphite. It inspires me to go fishing.
Just depends on what’s in your hand, and your individual tastes. This is my first bamboo, and I have my eye on a Quad that a friend made in a 6wt., beautiful.
Bill
[This message has been edited by Caddisman (edited 22 July 2005).]
You can buy a better fishing tool for 100.00 today than the best cane rod ever made.
Funny how folks tend to set rules and absolutes for all the rest of us.
[url=http://www.native-waters.com:32bf7]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:32bf7]
[This message has been edited by RStouff (edited 22 July 2005).]
Please don’t mis understand what I say when say you can buy a better fishing tool for 100.00 then the best cane ever made. When I say that I am simply saying that they will do more things with less effort than cane, Graphite is much easier to learn with. they are much lighter to fish with all day ( My first Steelhead Rod was a 9’ 9 WT. Orvis Batenkil) it is a canon and A man killer. I don’t think any of you cane lovers would buy a new tarpin rod in bamboo. The love afair cane lovers have my self included, is not in preformance. it is a pride and love in the hand crafted beauty, a feeling of rolling back the hands of time to a place of peace and solitude our lives don’t have today. I love cane rods, Do I fish them Only when I need to turn back the hands of time.
Rich
Rich,
Okay, take this in the same spirit of friendly banter, please!
I doubt seriously you and me and the next guy have the same height, weight, build, hair color, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses etc. etc. etc.
Therefore I just bristle against blanket generalizations that “they will do more things with less effort than cane, Graphite is much easier to learn with. they are much lighter to fish with all day.” These are personal observations as they relate to personal experiences and personal circumstances. I know a guy who can take a $30 Pflueger rod and make you weep watching him cast it.
I have an 8’ 8" unknown maker 7-wt cane rod that will cast a line to the backing with a flick of the wrist, I have a 7-wt graphite rod I can’t cast past 60’ to save my life. But that does not lead me to any blanket conclusions about casting cane vs. graphite.
Okay, I occasionally to make gross generalizing statements too, but maybe we should all be a bit more careful about it, eh?
While I appreciated and enjoyed JC’s piece, I was never quite sure what he was trying to say to the reader: That while he loved bamboo he agrees they’re no comparison to graphite, or that he just views them differently from a childhood perspective with them, or that they’re merely a curiosity?
Regardless, I’ll put many of the modern makers’ rods against any of the modern graphites. Today’s makers are building faster, tougher and more responsive performance-giving rods than ever in the past. Still, a good Granger, Orvis, Phillipson or the like is a fishing tool among the finest out there.
Just my .02, as I’m sure yours was intended to be!
Best,
R
[url=http://www.native-waters.com:21ab2]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:21ab2]
All generalizations are false
Graphite is much easier to learn with
Please elaborate. I’d like to know your reasoning, because I disagree.
The love afair cane lovers have my self included, is not in preformance
The following is a part of a posting that I put up another board:
I fished today with my graphite rod today for the first time in several months. The rod is a good quality, 9’ , 5 weight that was my go-to rod for nymphing and streamers. Wow, did it feel awkward. After fishing only the bamboo for so long, the rod felt so different than I remember. It felt like I had to force every cast, really push it out there. The cane rod feels so much smoother.
You can speak for yourself, but please don’t attempt to speak for all of us, because you don’t know what everyone likes. Just look at how many rods are available out there. Different sizes, actions, balance points, etc There is a reason for that.
Jeff
I work only so that I can afford to fish
[url=http://nwcttu.tripod.com:8cedc]http://nwcttu.tripod.com[/url:8cedc]
Northwest CT TU web site
I an’t know expert at all, and most of you all know it. But from what I;v learned, if you have the relaxed mode to feel the rod, the cane will teach you more than from graphite. Grafighte will respond to it’s action, cane will responde to you…just my 02
Here is what I am saying If a cane rod looked exzacly like a graphite rod and you could not tell the differance unless you looked at the lable. The only differance was weight and feel when you picked it up! Would you buy one? or be inlove with it like cane lovers are? I would ,in my opinion think not. Very few people (IN MY OPINION ) would spend 1000.00 to 4000.00 on a rod that looked the same as a 100.00 Graphite. But I have been wrong before.
Rich
That “in my opinion” part makes disagreeing much more pleasant, though. Thanks.
[url=http://www.native-waters.com:d2235]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:d2235]
I do know that there are quite a few anomalies when it comes to graphite rods and if you?re in the market for $1000-$1500 graphite they?re out there. Is that much different than a $1000 bamboo that looks like a graphite rod or is it a $1000 graphite rod that looks like a $100 graphite rod?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; they say.
I can still remember myself as a non-fly fishing kid, spending what seemed an eternity staring at rack of Orvis Battenkills at Stoddard?s in Boston many long years ago. I promised myself that someday I?d get a cane rod. That day came a handful of years later when I got my hands on a sweet 7?0? Thomas Browntone. Many Leonards, Orvis, a Payne and a Thomas or three followed and for more than 20 years I fished nothing but bamboo for trout and salmon.
The funny thing is that in all those years I never felt like I couldn?t do what I needed to do presentation or casting wise in order to catch fish; my stated reason for fishing in the first place. I cast slow and medium rods on big and small waters and never felt under-gunned or outclassed; that is until the store clerks pushing the fast, faster, fastest graphite told me I was. A recent desire to give some of the old boo a break forced me to try a few of the new fangled sticks.
I now own more than a closet full of graphite rods that all do a great job in an array of line weights that I never fished before. The actions are all different; some are even medium to slow and a lot of fun. But at the end of a day fishing bamboo when the rods are being put away; I can still stand there staring and dreaming while putting away my cane like I did back in Stoddard?s those many years ago.
Maybe it is all looks but if the performance you seek in a rod can be satisfied by something that is beautiful too; you can?t lose.
Well said, Bamboozle. Well said, indeed!
[url=http://www.native-waters.com:33129]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:33129]
Bamboozie–Maybe i should fill your collection with a rod that you once admired in Stoddards of Boston. In my beginning of this post I mentioned a F E Thomas rod I have over my tying desk a Dame Stoddard “Never Break”. One of the bamboo that we had to use years ago.
Bill
[This message has been edited by William Fitzgerald (edited 22 July 2005).]
Bill:
Actually the rods I admired at Stoddard’s were Orvis. There may have been a Thomas or two there but at the time I didn’t even know what an Orvis was let alone an F.E. Thomas. All I knew is I wanted one of those “wooden” rods.
I do have a rather cool Thomas that like you should be displayed. It has full intermediate wraps and is all full length with the old spiked tip tops!