Vandalia Rodworks Bamboo
- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated Feb 9, 2008 at 12:10 am by
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Ok, on request I’m reluctantly posting some photos. If anyone thinks this is bad form I will delete or a moderator can delete. I promise you I don’t need the advertising, I’m almost a couple of years backed up on rod orders now as I do this part time…as in, maybe 6 hours a week are spent working on rods.
I make the blank completely by hand planing (don’t own a beveller). I sew my own rodbags. I make my own reelseats including hardware even down to hand chiselling out the mortise. I twist my own snake guides. The only thing aftermarket on my rods currently is the stripping guide, tip top and ferrule. I haven’t tackled that yet but will someday. I liken using aftermarket components on a blank I made to driving all the way across America to stop at the end of your street and let someone else pull your car in the driveway.
Thank you for posting the pictures Philip! If anyone has a problem with this post they are not into fly fishing! 🙂
Hey since you are two years behind can I buy one of your old rods? PM me if you think you can part with one.
Joel
I am just getting seriously interested in bamboo and have a question to those who know & love bamboo.
“Is there a significant difference between a well-built split cane rod and the older rods made for the masses up through the 40s or so (like a Southbend or Heddon)?”
I’ll take a stab here and say yes…most definitely.
Huge difference between the majority of production rods and a higher end rod. “Production” is used loosely here. What does that mean? Leonards were production. Hawes was production.
If interested, your first task is to go directly to amazon.com, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Purchase George Black’s “Casting A Spell” (this is your book on the history of the craft including how it was done)
Geirach’s “Fishing Bamboo”
http://www.amazon.com/Fishing-Bamboo-Anglers-Passion-Traditional/dp/159921217X/ref=pd_sim_b_img_3
and if you’re really feeling saucy, pick up the DVD “Troutgrass”. Most of the cheap old rods are 8′-9′ telephone poles. Slow and heavy. The difference between one of them and a rod based on the Dickerson 7613 or a Paul Young Driggs River is similar to the difference between fly casting with your kid’s snoopy rod and a Winston. Slow they are not. Heavy they are not. Like it you will. Heavier than a graphite rod of similar size? Yes. Enough to be a problem? No, not that I can tell. Is a fraction of an ounce really an issue?
The rod I fish the most is a 7′ 4wt based on a Cattanach taper. It is so much fun. I would consider it medium fast in action. It has this cool little hinge on unloading a cast that does a fantastic job of rolling over big heavy tandem rigged streamer/nymph combos and putting them right where you want ’em.
The “slow” connotation is incorrect. I made a Driggs taper (7’2″ 5 wt.) that was lightning in a bottle. It was almost too much. You had to force yourself to hold up on casts to keep short range (20′ to 30′) casts from slamming the water too hard. Lee Orr made the Lovely Reed’s version of the 7613 that was so fast it was like casting a broom, I hated it. We’ve been making the Russ Gooding tweak of the 7613 (7’6″ 5 wt.) that is much more pleasant to cast in my opinion. I fished the Madison and the Gallatin this past summer with a 7’9″ 5 wt (my tweak on the 7613) and was not handicapped at all, it was awesome.
I can see the rod, it’s ummm, lying diagonaly just under the anglers right hand… it is a dead give away that the picture has been PS’ed, look how bent it is… teehee
“whats my prize????”NOooo – that is just not fair, what a great fish… WELL DONE, that thing must have made your hart stopp when it ate… then stopp again when it started tearing line off you reel…
WOW
Mike
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