Two fishing buddies from Southern California arrived at the shop this week to build bamboo fly rods. Jim and Bob have been fishing together for years. They both love small stream fishing. Each selected the Model 100 bamboo fly rod for their build. Again, they both chose to flame their culms, for a light/medium flamed look to their rods.

Cort finished up his rod making class with a beautiful bamboo fly rod, and got on his way to building a second tip! Here are some highlights of this September’s class. Cort had been a very serious student all week. Comes to find out, he was concerned over the outcome! Would his rod come even close to those he had seen in the shop? Of COURSE it would! And it did! Cort is now a rodmaker, and justifiably so.

By Thursday the physical part of rod making is in the rear view mirror!  The morning is kind of like Christmas, opening up that special gift under the tree:

Wednesday is always “humpday” during the class. It’s necessary to have the rod sections glued up before we leave for the day. Cort planed away diligently, and not one strip needed to be redone. Way to go Cort! For his Payne 100 taper, Cort chose a 3-up node stagger a-la Leonard. Here are a few photos of today’s highlights, including the rare photo of the gluing binder at work (usually we are ALL involved in this process!)

Stay tuned for more rod building action! Thursday we will put it all together and have a ferruled and corked blank!

Cort sailed through the planing form setup during his bamboo rod making class! Having only one or two students makes the learning process more complete, and more comprehensive. Here are some pictures of Cort going through his paces planing out the butt section of his Payne 100 fly rod:

This month’s bamboo rod making class got off to a roaring start! Cort jump-started his week with a 2-hour long briefing on Sunday afternoon at the shop.  A couple of hours talking about rod making, what to expect, what happens each day of the bamboo rod making class, what taper to build and a few other things makes Monday morning a real supercharged affair!

Cort selected a very nice piece of bamboo, deciding to go with the gold toned cane that I use in my bamboo fly rods.  Using the Garrison method of strip selection, and the Payne method of strip utilization, as well as my interpretation of both, is going to give Cord that gap-free, no glue line look to his fly rod. Most of today was taken up splitting cane, staggering nodes and straightening strips!

Cort chose the Payne 100 taper, as his fishing in the Sierras is mostly on small water.  Seems like most of the students of mine choose the Payne 100 or my 8 foot Upper Sac Special for their first rod.  Here is a picture collage of Monday:

Where does the time go?  Chris and Hugh were here for a week, but that was already a week ago!  Between early mornings and late evenings the time passed quickly, and I didn’t have the energy to update this blog as I usually do.  Below is a collage of pictures showing the two rodmakers at work.  How did things go for the two of them?  Easiest said by printing the letter I received from Chris:

Here is Joe with his finished bamboo fly rod, casting away! He even had time to straighten and rough another rod section!

It’s the end of the week, and Joe’s bamboo fly rod is just about done! It has been a long journey, but a quick trip from culm to finished fly rod. Here are some pictures of Joe building out his 8 footer:

Once again, the day ended with a little fishing on the Upper Sac. Joe has watched the river drop into shape while his been here. If you haven’t been able to read the tee shirts he has been wearing, Joe works for the Toolik Research Station in Alaska….his job entails going from Fairbanks to the Research Station on a fairly regular basis. It is a 350 plus mile trip in each direction…..on the same road that “Ice Road Truckers” is filmed!

Joe had another good day building his bamboo fly rod! It’s a high-speed, low-drag experience and he has kept the pace up, including fishing every night after class! Here are some photos of todays regimen, with Joe building his cork grip, cleaning up his bamboo rod sections, fitting his ferrules, and finally, putting a coat of spar varnish on his rod: