Morning

I am probably going to be purchasing a 9' bamboo Shakespeare fly rod off @#$%&. I have a bid in for $85 Hopefully this is a decent deal. Anyone who would like to give an opinion on the value, please feel free to chime in with opinions

The pictures I have from the seller shows it to be in pretty decent shape but I would obviously want to re-wrap and replace the handle/reel seat. (It does show that it is in need of a little work but doesn't appear to be too much)

Where can I find info on rebuiling a bamboo rod. I think the technique and materials are probably going to be different and since I have never done a bamboo rod I figured this would be the place to ask the questions.

Thanks for all your help

Regards

Scott Ryan

It's not a terribly valuable rod. But you can have fun with it and learn a lot from refurbishing it. Any of the books on building bamboo rods will be helpful to you - the only difference is that instead of starting from scratch, you'll need to take your rod down a bit, first. If you can find a copy, Michael Sinclair's book on restoring bamboo rods isn't bad, really. It may also have some information on your Shakespeare rod including who made it for them and how it was wrapped and outfitted originally.

.....................

Thanks for the info Tom. I am headed over to Amazon to look for the book. I figured for $85 bucks (I probably won't go over $100 in bidding) I could at the very least get bragging rights to say I own a bamboo rod. And you are correct, it is a learning curve that I would like to learn about working with bamboo

Regards

Scott

Just keep in mind that at one point in time, nearly all rods were made from bamboo. It's not any more magical than other woods, glass or graphite. But you will have an antique and something that you'll have fun refurbishing and perhaps fishing with.

..........

Bamboo is far superior to graphite for a fly rod, as the price for a new made rods would suggest . But they are two different animals !

One of Sinclair's book on @#$%& just went for a little more than what you are bidding for the rod.

Try the library.

It is a fun process and a rewarding result.

Superior in what respect? Performance or efficiency? Of course not. Superior in terms of the sort of "feel" that a particular angler might desire? Possibly. There are certainly people who feel that cars made in the 1940s are superior to any automobiles made today, but that would be a very subjective opinion based on style or similar, not one based on performance or abilities.

I won't throw off on Scott's hoped for purchase - I own a couple dozen bamboo rods myself and enjoy them tremendously. But they cannot perform at the same level as most graphite rods. Not if we're talking weight, recovery, etc. You could alter a graphite rod design to permit a similar feel and performance to bamboo (use a less efficient tubing design) but you'd never get a bamboo rod to perform on par with the better graphite fly rod designs. There is a limitation in the material that even a well designed structure won't be able to overcome.

The prices on the better bamboo rods do not reflect performance as much as they do the time involved and the small product quantities of the makers.

.................

Tom,

I totally agree with you though die-hard bamboo fly fishermen may not. The graphite tubular technology has advanced to a degree where all things are almost possible. Though the fishing rod may not be the prime end product, it has benefitted from the progress made in other sports and industries dealing with graphite. Therefore, it's also my believe that the graphite fishing rod is far superior in performance, efficiency and grace.

Anthony Lee

Thanks for the input guys. I too believe that I can get a better rod out of todays material, however bamboo, its a throw back to the golden age, the "River runs through it" thing that appeals so much to me. The fact that this rod has an age (Unknown) who knows what stories it could tell if it could only speak. Its the feeling of mystique. Old times good times. Thats what I see in bamboo. And one of these days...I am going to wrap up a brand new one, one that I can pass along to my daughter and start this whole process over again.

Regards

Scott

"Its the feeling of mystique. Old times good times. Thats what I see in bamboo"

Exactly. When somebody says bamboo is superior to graphite for fly rods (or any rod) this is the sort of subjective thing they're really talking about, whether they know it or not.

.................

Scott,
Hope you get the rod. I have gone down the same path and have enjoyed it . I agree that the bamboo can't give the same performance for the weight that graphite can but there is something in the feel of bamboo that can't be done with graphite. The feeling that you are holding a rod that was a living organism is part of the mistique.
For your information, Shakespeare did not make bamboo rods, they were made for a while by South Bend and later by Montague. These were produced for the hardware trade and sold under the Shakespeare label and model #. Hope you can fin a copy of the Sinclair book as it is getting hard to find. Mine is not for sale at any cost as I constantly refer to it. Good luck and enjoy.

I think that if you pay no more than $100.00 for a two tip southbend 9' rod in good shape you are not paying too much. sure, maybe you could buy it cheaper. if it has a short tip, or only one tip i think $100 is too much. you will find the rods heavy by graphite standards. they will cast ok but not as far as a 9' graphite of the same weight (in the average casters hands.) i think the best rods in bamboo will be under 8' with 7'6" being a great length. if you can get your hands on one of mark fitches blanks on @#$%& for around 200.00 and build it yourself you will have a wonderful rod. in the mean time it is fun to take an old SB and re wrap and re-varnish, etc. it will be fishable. it will load up close and you will be able to get out around
45-50 feet without too much strain. if you get one with bad ferruls (not tight or loose on the rod) you will have a wall hanger unless you are prepared to spend another hundred.

get the fitch!

is it worth it to you? my fishing tackle doesnt have value to me because it is priceless, being that i would never sell it or even think about it, and the question you have to ask yourself is, IS IT WORTH IT TO YOU. thats also what you tell your wife when she says why did you spend so much,........"because its worth it to me"

In what seems like another life and I was so very young, I had heard so much about the miracle of bamboo fly rods and how nothing else could compare to them. I bought a used Leonard, made about 1960. This was in the mid 1970s. It was a beautiful rod and I cherished it. A couple weeks later I actually got to go out and fish it. I was terribly disappointed. Even against what where then very early model graphite rods, the Leonard paled miserably. But it was a beautiful instrument that I took pride in. But I rarely fished with it until finally selling it to a client about a year later. I was still building a business and could not afford to own things that I could not or would not use.

from what i have gathered, not all bamboo is equal. that's a pretty obvious statement for those who know bamboo rods, but may not be for others who have only heard of the mystique. a nine foot shakespeare for about $100 will probably not give you an idea of what a fine bamboo rod is truly like with casting and fishing, although, who knows? although bamboo is an inherently tough material and can be used for many types of fishing, i think the realization of this popular "mystique" may be generally (!) reserved for trout rods under 8 feet long. by all means, go for it. at least you'll gain experience, but if you should fine yourself thinking, wow, what is the hoopla about bamboo, this is TERRIBLE, hold off until you can cast and fish a fine bamboo rod under the circumstances it was designed for. this includes the correct marrying of line (weight) to rod, distance while casting and the angler's own ability to adjust and (this is a much overused but actually accurate description) allow the rod to do the work.

honestly, what i just wrote has been gathered from lawn casting a few very nice bamboo fly rods and fishing one excellent rod for a month. by no means am i an expert, but i have been reading religiously many things bamboo for about a year, building up to make my move to my first bamboo rod. hope everything goes swimmingly for ya scott.

eric
fresno, ca.

Obviously, there will be good bamboo rods and bad bamboo rods. Same with graphite.

There will be several bamboo rod makers exhibiting at the 2007 International Custom Rod Building Exposition. I personally know one of them and I'd put his rods into the "good" category.

..........

Ok it is a done deal. I got the rod for $82.00 with shipping its $94.00. Since I wont be able to refurb it anytime soon It is going on the wall in the Den. I don't think I did too bad and even if I only fish it once, the experieince I get from refurbing it will be priceless.

Regards

Scott

Ihope this is not breaking any rules... but a great place to learn about bamboo is this forum...

[www.rodbuildingforum.com]


Also, I just read a great book about the history of bamboo rods. It is by George Black and is called Casting a Spell: the Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection.