[erniemx5]

Living in the SE and no trout fishing other than an annual trip to Jackson Hole to visit my sister in-law, I never had bought into this whole bamboo fly rod zen stuff. Pretty much all of arsenal consists of Fast Action graphite rods and mainly for saltwater and the occasional bass/bream trip. About 4 months ago, I re-read Gierach's book on fishing bamboo, and decided to see if there was anything to this slower action stuff. I found a Seele 3 wt Fiberglass rod on the bay with a pretty good price, so I gave it a shot. It was a completely different feel, and worked really well on bream and bass. Having started scratching the itch, I found a really good deal on a 5wt Sweetgrass Mantra from the Boo brothers. I finally took it fishing yesterday, and I think I'm in love. I was on the water for 8 hours, normally my arm would feel like it wanted to fall off, but with the relaxed throwing motion using bamboo, I felt great. I used a 4wt TT and it handled bream sized Booglebugs and #6 buggers quite nicely. I'll be fishing it as much as I can, and no "X" in my future.

 

[greenriver]

I live in KY and hear ya. Only tailwater trout if the Corps shuts off the water, but we have great bluegill and bass
fishing. That is a nice sized fish.

 

[Walter Spaulding]

I may have to try the boo myself . Just had an old St Croix given to me that's allot slower and softer than all my other rods and it is fun to fish . The rod does the work for you .