Bamboo Fly Rods

 I plan on making a few more fly rods in 2016 and I will document my build process here on Todd’s Workshop.  I’m hoping to shoot some video also of the build.  The images below are a rod I made for a friend of mine.  It’s a 2 piece 7ft 6in 5wt. I haven’t perfected the craft of bamboo fly rod making which is why I don’t sell my rods yet. Maybe someday I’ll consider a rod good enough to sell. There is quite an involved process in creating a fishable piece of functional art. It takes no less than 40 hours of work to complete 1 basic rod. There are many ways to modify a rod, such as a swelled butt section or cane wrappings and some makers hand engrave the reel seat and ferrules, but I’m just trying to get the basics down first. I buy raw cork rings and turn the grips myself and I turn my own reel seat inserts which adds a little time to my builds but not a terrible amount.

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