Bamboo Fly Fishing Rods, value, buying, selling

Casting a fly rod versus other types of fishing has the critical difference that unlike casting a bait or lure in which the weight of the bait pulls the fishing line along behind; a fly is essentially weightless. The result is that the fly fisher is casting the line itself with the fly along for the ride. Thus fly rods are generally longer and more limber than other styles of fishing rods, and the design or "taper" of the rod dictates how well it performs. In the mid 19th century, makers discovered that by splitting a stalk of bamboo into long slivers called splines; tapering those splines, and then glueing them together into a rod, was the ideal answer. Six splines are the near standard, although there have been rods built with 8, 5, 4 or even two glued up splines.

For nearly 100 years, split bamboo was the only suitable material by which to build a fly rod, and while the better creations can be masterpieces of design and craftsmanship over which enthusiasts drool and covet, ALL bamboo rods are not valuable either as collectible memorabilia or as still practical fishing tools. In reality, until the introduction of fiberglass after ww2, presision and attention to detail made the best bamboo models expensive beyond the reach of "Joe Average" and mass production companies such as Horrocks and Ibbotson or Montague turned out rods to sell at retail for as little as $.85.

While the definition of "quality" is difficult to quantify, it is a safe statement that for every good bamboo rod, perhaps 1000 clunkers were produced. And since both quality and mass producers would private label rods for sporting goods dealers, hardware stores and such, and even entities such as Montague also made a few decent models, the brand name on the rod by itself isn't an entirely reliable indicator of quality. A discussion of what length or line size/weight is appropriate is beyond the scope of this note, and assuming the seeker knows those answers, the question is how to ID and value a quality rod. 1. Most bamboo rods built from post US Civil War until the 1930s were in three sections (butt, mid and tip) and typically were supplied with a spare tip. Rods are described by the number of sections and whether or not the spare is present.