Silk on Bamboo

Early on in my cane phase, I won an auction for a neat-mint condition W&M Granger Special 9050 - a 9 foot, 3-piece rod whose blank weighed 5 oz, including ferrules but without reel seat, grip, guides, tiptop and wraps. All together I hesitate to guess how heavy it is. It's a lovely rod but is a rotator cuff injury waiting to happen.

K

I'm not a big graphite user allthough I now have the required number in my collection. Whatever that is. I got my first graphite for gear fishing from a boat for a salmon trip to Campbell River. A trip that we never took and I have never used the rod. My second was a mistake from G.I. Joes, I put a steelhead rod on layaway there and when I picked it up it was gone and they gave me a better rod that also has never been used. In 07 I bought a St. Croix 5wt 4pc. for my trip to the Sierras. For christmas in 07 my wife gave me a Cabelas 14 ft.spey rod. The latter two have been used but the most used rod I have is my Lamniglas 8 and a half ft. 7 wt. that I made myself for fishing the Deschutes I made it about 1977. I still love that rod the best, I have a couple of others that I have picked up over time, that are both glass and graphite that I do use occasionally. The glass ones I made and the graphite I bought cheap. So I'm not used to any thing much. I also use my medalist reels on most of the rods except the St.Croix and the spey from Cabelas

One thing you could do with a an old 9' Montague is make a "banty" rod using the tip and mid-section. Saw off the butt section below the ferrule, and put a cork grip and reel seat on it, preferably with the cork grip covering the ferrule. Scrape off the old varnish, wrap new guides, and apply new varnish. When assembled, you have a useful 6'8" to 6'11" rod (depending on what kind of grip and reel seat you use). I've never made one of these myself, but I know a member of this forum recently did, and is really happy with the result!

Let me know if you need any info on working with bamboo rods.

Tom

Witih all this being said, there is something about the hiss of a well polished silk line shooting through the guides. I have a Phoenix double taper that I use with my 7'6" 4 wgt that was built by the late John Channer. Part of the fun of using a silk line is taking a shore lunch to snack on while you dry your line, grease it back up, then fish the afternoon hatch. Not only does boo slow down your casting stroke, boo and silk slows down your life. Not a bad thing.

REE