dcabarle
Administrator
Yesterday I woke up a bit late because I had a wedding to tend to all day Saturday. I wasn't going to fish yesterday but I had to try this new bamboo rod out. I went searching for the Neversink Gorge, but I couldn't find it. Maybe next week. So, I ventured up to old faithfull, The Beaverkill... I park my car and get ready to string my new rod up and guess what! I forgot my reel. I took it out of my bag last week to put a new leader on it and never put it back to where it belongs. I've been pretty forgetful lately. Last week I forgot my vest! How the hell do you forget your vest. Christ, I'm 34 going on 70. Lucky for me, I always carry my Felix the Cat bag and was able to pull out another reel (Orvis CFO / really nice reel). It had an old dirty 4wt line on it too! The line was so dirty that it sank to the bottom on EVERY Cast. As you can imagine, my hookup rate was rather low due to my inability to set the hook within a reasonable amount of time.
Hooking fish on Bamboo. Night and day. Graphite has a very soft feel to it (as I've just come to realize). Even the smallest fish seem to have some backbone with a bamboo rod. Bamboo flexes quite a bit too, so it's a little tougher to bring them in. Maybe my 12 foot leader didn't help either. I can't imagine catching an 18" fish on this thing, it feels a bit soft? Anyone know what I mean? I just feel that these rods (at least mine) is made for fish under 15", using nothing less than a 5x tippet.
Casting... Casting is a bit different too, in a good way. One of the major differences is that it always seems that whatever you do wrong, your fly always turns over perfectly! If it's all in the presentation, bamboo is the right way to go. I've never been so accurate before. Distance... I was able to put the fly just about wherever I wanted once I figured the rod out. Sure is a helluva lot smoother than graphite, that's for sure.
Catching fish on bamboo takes some time to learn. For one, there will be no Orvis like poses when you're fishing a Bamboo rod. If you fish like that, you'll put a set in the tip section. You've gotta just about point the rod at the fish. That takes a bit getting used to.
When I use the rod with some nice clean line, I'm sure the hookups will be a bit more and the casting will also be much smoother. Overall, it's a great rod for streams like the Beaverkill, neversink, and Willow. I'm not so sure I'd use it on a larger stream like the D.
Hooking fish on Bamboo. Night and day. Graphite has a very soft feel to it (as I've just come to realize). Even the smallest fish seem to have some backbone with a bamboo rod. Bamboo flexes quite a bit too, so it's a little tougher to bring them in. Maybe my 12 foot leader didn't help either. I can't imagine catching an 18" fish on this thing, it feels a bit soft? Anyone know what I mean? I just feel that these rods (at least mine) is made for fish under 15", using nothing less than a 5x tippet.
Casting... Casting is a bit different too, in a good way. One of the major differences is that it always seems that whatever you do wrong, your fly always turns over perfectly! If it's all in the presentation, bamboo is the right way to go. I've never been so accurate before. Distance... I was able to put the fly just about wherever I wanted once I figured the rod out. Sure is a helluva lot smoother than graphite, that's for sure.
Catching fish on bamboo takes some time to learn. For one, there will be no Orvis like poses when you're fishing a Bamboo rod. If you fish like that, you'll put a set in the tip section. You've gotta just about point the rod at the fish. That takes a bit getting used to.
When I use the rod with some nice clean line, I'm sure the hookups will be a bit more and the casting will also be much smoother. Overall, it's a great rod for streams like the Beaverkill, neversink, and Willow. I'm not so sure I'd use it on a larger stream like the D.
