Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
A fishable vintage split bamboo rod costs far less than most anglers assume - around $150 for an eight-and-a-half or nine foot rod that throws a five or six weight line. Judge it by the seams between the six bamboo strips, the varnish and wraps, tight ferrules, and whether it loads instead of wagging on a fake cast.
David Lehmann is a Rochester, New York geologist, tackle historian and collector who has written about fishing history for over thirty years and is a former president of the old reel collectors' association.
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Why does Caledonia, New York matter in trout fishing history?
Caledonia is a village of about two thousand people that happens to be where Seth Green built the first fish hatchery in the Western Hemisphere, a hatchery that still operates today. Green is arguably the most influential figure in modern trout fishing: hatchery propagation of trout was his idea, and he was the one who first brought brown trout to the United States. The village also has two well-known trout streams and fishing clubs that date back to the mid-1850s.
What is in the Big Springs Museum in Caledonia?
The Big Springs Museum occupies an old school house and runs to more than six thousand square feet, which is an extraordinary amount of exhibit space for a town of two thousand - the equivalent of a warehouse-sized museum in a mid-size city. It documents essentially everything that happened in Caledonia from the 1820s onward, down to displays for people who taught or coached in the town for decades. One room is devoted to Seth Green, holding his desk, paintings, the large fish weather vane that once sat on top of the hatchery, and three antique fly reels.
What made the three old reels in the museum significant?
The first is a small English multiplying reel about the diameter of a silver dollar, made between 1809 and the late 1820s, in which one turn of the handle spins the spool two and a half times. Its maker worked almost exclusively in brass, but this reel is German silver - a nickel alloy that looks and polishes like silver - and as far as auction records, books and specialist collectors can establish, it is the only known example by that maker in that metal. The second is an early American side-mount reel with an open birdcage spool designed so that silk fly lines drained and dried, and it holds the earliest United States fishing reel patent. The third is a handmade birdcage side-mount using two discs rather than one, and partly built out of tin.
How was the maker of the handmade reel identified?
The handmade reel was never stamped with a maker's name, so it was identified through museum records and a single surviving note naming a Rochester foundry and the man who made it. Only one other reel like it is known, held by the director of a national fly fishing museum, and it too turned out to have components made of tin. Tin is close to the last metal anyone would choose for a fishing reel - it is soft and it is weak - but it was the metal that maker knew, having started out as a tinsmith before working his way up to vice president of the foundry. Both reels date to roughly the 1870s or 1880s.
What did trout rods look like before split bamboo?
In the 1830s, before split bamboo existed, trout rods were wood - typically greenheart, chosen because it could be shaped, held some backbone, kept a little flex and resisted rot in a dirt-floor cellar or barn. They were heavy and hard to cast. The earliest of them had no ferrules at all: two sections were cut at a long angle, like a pencil sliced on the diagonal, and lashed together with thread or twine, so rigging up a rod was itself a chore.
How much did fly rod length change in the 1800s?
Seth Green lived through nearly the entire evolution of the fly rod. A trout rod could be fifteen feet long when he was young; later a twelve foot rod was considered short, to the point that one prominent rod seller published the opinion that only women should fish rods under twelve feet. By the end of his life a nine foot rod existed and was considered very short indeed, which is roughly where trout rods have stayed ever since.
How do you judge a split bamboo rod at a flea market?
Start with the bamboo. Most split bamboo rods are built from six tapered strips, hexagonal in cross-section, and the blank should read as one uniform piece of material - visible gaps between the strips, or wood putty filling those seams, means either poor construction or a rod that has come apart and been refinished. Check the varnish for flaking or missing patches down to bare bamboo, and be wary of a finish showing heavy brush strokes or excessive thickness, which signals a careless re-varnish; fine crazing in the finish is cosmetic only. Then check the thread wraps for fraying or clumsy over-heavy work, make sure the ferrules seat tightly, and flex the assembled rod through a casting motion - if it rattles, something is loose, and if the tip wags afterward like a happy dog's tail it will not cast line.
What is a set in a bamboo rod, and can it be fixed?
A set is a permanent bend in a bamboo rod, usually the result of being stored leaning against a wall for years or of being fished hard with heavy streamers. Because bamboo is a natural material rather than graphite, it takes that shape and keeps it, producing a slight hockey-stick curve near the tip. A set is not a reason to walk away from a rod: it can be removed with heat, either cheaply by a professional or at home by someone following a video, and worn varnish can be sealed against moisture by rubbing paste wax over the blank.
What does a fishable vintage bamboo rod cost?
A good eight-and-a-half or nine foot vintage bamboo rod rated for a five or six weight line runs about $150, sometimes as little as $100, and often arrives in its original 1930s bag. Rods from the most respected classic makers sell for $600 to $700, and new bamboo built by a current maker runs $2,500 to $3,000. Prices run backwards to size: salmon rods are the cheapest, while six-and-a-half and seven foot rods cost more, because fewer were made, they are a pleasure to cast, and the people who own them never sell them.
Is bamboo harder to cast than graphite?
The common assumption is that split bamboo is for experts and for wealthy collectors, and both halves of that are wrong. A decent split bamboo rod is the most forgiving fly rod to cast - easier than fiberglass, and far easier than a high-modulus carbon rod, which will reach the next county but punishes any deterioration in technique by collapsing the loop. For teaching someone to cast, bamboo is arguably the best tool available, and the rods do not have to be expensive to be good.
Key takeaways
- A fishable vintage split bamboo rod for a five or six weight line costs around $150, and sometimes as little as $100.
- Sight down a bamboo blank at the seams between its six strips - gaps or wood putty mean poor build or a broken rod refinished.
- Flex an assembled bamboo rod before buying: a rattle means a loose ferrule or glue joint, and a wagging tip means it will not cast.
- A set - a permanent bend from bad storage or heavy streamer fishing - can be heat-straightened cheaply and is not a reason to pass on a rod.
- Paste wax over worn varnish seals micro-cracks in the finish and keeps moisture out of the bamboo.
- Split bamboo is the most forgiving fly rod to cast, which makes it a better teaching rod than a fast carbon rod.
- Seth Green founded the first fish hatchery in the Western Hemisphere at Caledonia, New York, and it is still in operation.
