Scott's Fly Fishing and Astronomy Site

Bamboo Fly Rods

New Bamboo Rod in the House!

I picked up another bamboo rod in Mid-January to see if I could find a bamboo rod that was restorable to fishing condition.  The rod I bought on January 2nd, ended up being a $35 lesson on what makes up a bamboo rod and how to find one in reasonable shape.  

The new rod is a 5/6 wt. 9 foot rod without any make or model on it.  It came with a short beaten-up cork handle and a loose reel seat (1/4" wiggle).  Also, two or three ferrules were loose, but solid shape.

  The handle was too short for my hand and didn't offer much leverage for a long and heavy (compared to graphite) rod.

  Here is the rod before any work.

  Here is the rod after a new handle, reset ferrules, re-glued (epoxy) reel seat and a replaced snake guide (on lighter tip largest snake guide broke when I stupidly tried to straighten out a bend).  

  Here is a close-up of the new handle.

It will be fished on the Crooked River on January 24-25 at the Westfly Rondi.  Can't wait!

On January 2, 2003, I purchased my first Bamboo Fly Rod to work on as a project.  My intention is not to refinish it to a wall hanging existence, but rather recondition it to a fishable state.

As with all photos on this site, Click to enlarge photo and use the back button on your browser to return to the source page.

  Full photo of the rod, bag and a 36" ruler for scale.  Clearly a 9' rod that appears to be for 5-6 wt. line. 

  This is what remains of the rod logo.  It is a Montague Flash Bamboo Fly Rod. 

  Butt sections of the fly rod.  The reel seat is in very good condition.  All metal and no plastic as is often used in Montague rods.  In one book the cork handle appeared to be the same as one listed with a circa date of 1949.  More research is needed to confirm date of rod.

  Tip section.  Both tips are missing and one tip section has a small crack 2-3" from the tip.  One other note, one of these tip sections is slightly stiffer than the other.  Unsure why.