# Bamboo Rods



## flysalt060 (Aug 5, 2012)

my BIL came across 2 good boo rods.I discouraged him from taking the 8 down to St.george.he still hasn't brought it up here to let Bobby or Gary M take a good look at it.Mr. Oyster makes some excellent rods.got a little sneak peek back in the winter early 1 sunday am on the way to fish Toccoa.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

Just ordered #5-6 and #8-9 blanks from anglers roost based on classic tapers for a great price. Interested to see the quality.  For the price I couldn't resist.  
http://theanglersroost.com/products/bamboo-rods/
Will report when I finish the builds.  Should be a blast to play with.  Hope to take the 8-9 to LA next time I go over. Bill Oyster does beautiful work.  Wouldn't want that nickle silver near the salt though. Check these out:








The Saltwater is made in the following lengths, # of sections and line weights:

8' 2 piece 7wt (8072), 8' 3 piece 7wt (8073), 8'3" 2 piece 7wt (8372), 8'3" 3 piece 7wt (8373), 8'6" 2 piece 7wt (8672), 8'6" 3 piece 7wt (8673), 8'9" 2 piece 7wt (8972), 8'9" 3 piece 7wt (8973), 9' 2 piece 7wt (9072), 9' 3 piece 7wt (9073), 8' 2 piece 8wt (8082), 8' 3 piece 8wt (8083), 8'3" 2 piece 8wt (8382), 8'3" 3 piece 8wt (8383), 8'6" 2 piece 8wt (8682), 8'6" 3 piece 8wt (8683), 8'9" 2 piece 8wt (8982), 8'9" 3 piece 8wt (8983), 9' 2 piece 8wt (9082), 9' 3 piece 8wt (9083), 8' 2 piece 9wt (8092), 8' 3 piece 9wt (8093), 8'3" 2 piece 9wt (8392), 8'3" 3 piece 9wt (8393), 8'6" 2 piece 9wt (8692), 8'6" 3 piece 9wt (8693), 8'9" 2 piece 9wt (8992), 8'9" 3 piece 9wt (8993), 9' 2 piece 9wt (9092), 9' 3 piece 9wt (9093), 8' 2 piece 10wt (80102), 8' 3 piece 10wt (80103), 8'3" 2 piece 10wt (83102), 8'3" 3 piece 10wt (83103), 8'6" 2 piece 10wt (86102), 8'6" 3 piece 10wt (86103), 8'9" 2 piece 10wt (89102), 8'9" 3 piece 10wt (89103), 9' 2 piece 10wt (90102), 9' 3 piece 10wt (90103),

Two Piece Single Tip Rod - $1699
Two Piece Two Tip Rod - $1899
Three Piece Single Tip Rod - $1899
Three Piece Two Tip Rod - $2099 

http://www.bamboo-fisher.com/rods.htm


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## BayStYat (Sep 12, 2012)

oh man, I am looking at one also. That rod is beautiful.


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Lots of people think bamboo rods are fragile, but I've watched Bill Oyster lay his rod on the ground, stomp on it, and then pick it up and cast 100' on multiple occasions.


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## BayStYat (Sep 12, 2012)

> Lots of people think bamboo rods are fragile, but I've watched Bill Oyster lay his rod on the ground, stomp on it, and then pick it up and cast 100' on multiple occasions.


I have been doing my research on them.  I was wondering how tough they are.  I may buy a blank and build one.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

I am building the Heddon Black Beauty #5/6 9' and the Leonard 4099 8'6" #8/9. Wish they had the Orvis Shooting Star #8 blank.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

Blanks came in the mail today. Finish was 7/10. They are very pretty and straight as an arrow. They came varnished and ready to be fitted for ferrules. I am highly impressed for $150.00. Contrary to reviews I have read online the rods look great and John was a gentleman to deal with. Should be a lot of fun once I get them ferruled and finished. If they break oh well.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Bamboo is very strong. Houses have been built out of it. But even so I don't know if a Bamboo rod could handle a large Tarpon or giant Redfish heck some graphite rods can't


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## JaxLaxFish (Aug 23, 2010)

> Just ordered #5-6 and #8-9 blanks from anglers roost based on classic tapers for a great price. Interested to see the quality.  For the price I couldn't resist.
> http://theanglersroost.com/products/bamboo-rods/
> Will report when I finish the builds.  Should be a blast to play with.  Hope to take the 8-9 to LA next time I go over.


Yes definitely keep us updated as you build them on cost of supplies, skill level necessary, etc. More importantly of course will be how do they cast.


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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

> Bamboo is very strong. Houses have been built out of it. But even so I don't know if a Bamboo rod could handle a large Tarpon or giant Redfish heck some graphite rods can't


You should do some reading on old fiwhing tqckle and the fish they took with it. It would open your eyes


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## cal1320 (Jun 6, 2007)

> Blanks came in the mail today.  Finish was 7/10.  They are very pretty and straight as an arrow. They came varnished and ready to be fitted for ferrules. I am highly impressed for $150.00.  Contrary to reviews I have read online the rods look great and John was a gentleman to deal with.  Should be a lot of fun once I get them ferruled and finished. If they break oh well.


OK. You've had 2 weeks. That's long enough. Let's see some pics of the finished rod, your first fish on it, and an in depth review.   Those are great prices on the finished rods too. Let us know how they are.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

I am in the process of moving to Jupiter, FL buying my first house.  I close Monday. I have the ferrules and silk in from Golden Witch.  They were great to deal with.  If anyone decides to build a bamboo rod definitely get your ferrules and silk from them.  The ferrules are where you do not want to get cheap.  If this were a more expensive blank I would have had custom ferrules made of titanium from Schliske.  Being my first I will stick with nickle silver but still of good quality.  I will over wrap them and varnish like Bill Oyster does for added resistance to salt.  I have all the marks made to cut the blanks to final size. The last week I have had to help my girlfriend finish her new saltwater bait caster to get it out of the rod wrapper to be packed. I have to get the ferrule stations on the blank and the male ferrules lapped on my lathe before I can go further.  I will be moving along shortly and pic heavy posts will accompany my progress. There has also been a couple books purchased and heavy reading on my part in order to get the ferrules properly sized and installed. Measure, measure again then measure again.  I am way beyond ready to be casting these rods.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)




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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

A little update now that I am settled in enough to the new home to have time to do things that I want. Owning a home is a lot of hard work and takes away much of that free time I took for granted renting all my life. 

Varnishing the blank proved to be a challenge at first. Rather than make a varnish tank I tried to cheat and brush on the varnish. That proved to be a disaster. The first varnish I tried would not dry either. I had to strip all the sections and completely start over again. I built my own dip tank and went by the directions I originally should have. I also switched to Helmsman Spar by Minwax. The result was great. Three coats and a lot of elbow grease sanding between coats, compounding and polishing and they are ready to be wrapped. The fitting and lapping of the ferrules is also something I am glad I spent weeks reading about before attempting. It is looking beautiful and should be ready for the final coats of varnish on the wraps next week. It will hard to wait a week for the finish to cure before casting it.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

BlackMantis, it's looking good and it appears that your rod has a decent taper to it and a stout butt.  You need that throwing larger flies.

This was a 2 handed 9wt custom made that I field tested for a couple of years.  It had a little too much flex in the butt than I cared for.  It was designed for small tarpon, but I would never use for that.  Sent it back to the builder about 6 yrs ago.  Had some fun dock light fishing with it though.   





I had a Southbend Bamboo that was beautiful (circa 1942), but it was in such pristine condition, that I did fish it in the salt and mainly kept it as a collectors item.  But in the downsizing of my fishing/fly fishing stuff, I sold it on ebay and it brought in some good dough.

One rod that I had that I would buy again and re-do was a 6wt - 3 piece Montague Sunbeam.  That rod had a nice medium action (in todays standards) with a heavier butt section for lifting, fighting big fish and throwing larger flies.  You can buy them cheap enough since they were a production Japanese built rod in the 40's and 50's to compete against the US built bamboos.  Again, I sold mine but if I knew how to re-build rods or build rods, I would have kept it and modernize it.  I'm hoping to learn to build fly rods in the near future so I might pick up one on ebay for a project 6wt bamboo.


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

Took the rod out this weekend and it casts great! I really am pleased with the action and strength of the rod although I didn't catch anything due to the weekend boat traffic in the river up here. My only regret was using color protector on the wraps. I did three coats on the silk then varnished. They were not sealed I guess and have a "tiger stripe" look where some of the color protector penetrated the thread. There is a brand specifically made for silk I may try or just varnish the silk directly and get the transparent look. I am finishing the second tip now and will just varnish the silk to see how I like it. Oh well it was a good learning experience before I start my next project of planing my own blank from scratch. Now I am going to see how it handles a redfish this weekend.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Some of the rod guys might have a better solution, but there is a possibility that the color protector and the varnish are not compatible with each other.  I have fixed issues similar to that in the pass by taking a heat gun and just barely heating it up to get that striping effect out.  Maybe you can experiment by re-creating the same thing on a thin 1/8" dow (from walmart).  Letting it set up as long as you did your rod and then taking the heat gun to it to see if that solve that effect.  Again, just heating it lightly and not making the varnish bubble. It's a common occurrence when someone uses a oil based product over a water based product (or vise versa).


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## kamakuras (Feb 23, 2012)

Thanks for the great suggestion. I am going to do some experimenting just like you said before I finish my next rod and see what works best.


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