From “the Suite”
“Now I knew. I knew “production rod” was a mild insult in the world of bamboo rods. It was like owning a Ford or Chevrolet in the company of people who drove Jaguars.”
-Frank Soos, Bamboo Fly Rod Suite
Ford or Chevrolet don’t mean very much today, but having a bamboo rod that you feel like fishing is something worthwhile. We hope you take the opportunity to just try bamboo. It’s something you just shouldn’t miss out on.
The 1950s Heddon Model 1000
In the mid-1950s, the Heddon Model 1000 was a gem of a production rod. With gold plated guides and beautiful walnut reelseat spacer, the 1000 could be had for $100. According to John Gierach, about a month’s pay for the average fly fisherman of the day.
Waitsap muk, Kwongning chuk…
Might sound Greek to most of us, but you’d have to be either an expert in early 20th century Cantonese or a bamboo fly rod nut to know that this is Cantonese for “for wood, Waisap, for bamboo, Kwongning.” This little jingle lead a young botanist from the US Department of Agriculture, Floyd McClure, to a place up the Sui river to find a grove of what the growers called “Tea Stick Bamboo”–the Angler’s Bamboo. He ended up calling it Arundinaria amabilis, “the Lovely Bamboo.”
Hoover: The Fishing President
As a boy, “Bert”, as Hoover was called, was fishing the Santiam near Salem, Oregon with worms, when an older fisherman gave the boy three artificial wet flies–a coachman, a grey hackle, and a professor–and encouraged the boy to abandon bait fishing.
The worm, the butcher-string line, and the willow-stick pole were now put aside for a bamboo pole with the fly tied directly to the end of the line. Hoover, arguing for simplicity and efficiency, claimed that the action and the “potency” of the bamboo pole and fly exceeded that of all other methods.
Taken from Hoover the fishing president, by Hal Elliot Wert
Everyman’s Bamboo Rod: A Thing of the Past or the Present?
The golden age of twentieth-century bamboo rod making included a sweet spot of good quality manufactured rods by companies such as the Goodwin Granger Co. or James Heddon and Sons that applied mass-production techniques to yield literally hundreds of thousands of bamboo rods for fly anglers of average means. Sadly, a Chinese trade embargo and resulting half-century of materials science innovations, from fiberglass to ever more technical graphite formulations, displaced every production bamboo rod manufacturer by the 1970s.
Notwithstanding, bamboo continues to captivate anglers. Bamboo is nostalgic. It feels natural. It has character. Bamboo is an irreplaceable classic and an unequaled thrill to cast. Unfortunately, since the demise of production rods, new rods have been pricey and hard to come by, with only a handful being turned out by basement builders. Modern fly anglers want to fish bamboo without damaging an heirloom, mortgaging the farm, waiting two seasons, or risking second-hand rods. Headwaters Bamboo Rod Company, manufacturer of traditional bamboo fly fishing rods, is filling the void by providing affordable high quality rods and classic fly reels to a discriminating fly-fishing niche.
The raw material used by every reputable bamboo rod builder worldwide is harvested in
The bamboo rods that Headwaters sells to the angling public are crafted by people who want to make a quality product they can be proud of. Our suppliers are made up of a handful of small shops—employing a father, a couple of brothers, and neighbors. Their desire is to provide for their families and enjoy the freedom and luxury of economic growth. They’re using their hearts and industry to pull themselves into the twenty-first century. We live in a global economy and our Western standard of living is entirely dependent on global relationships like this.
Try a Headwaters bamboo rod and feel the thrill of bamboo for yourself. Headwaters Bamboo Rod Company puts the best of the past into an affordable, excellent quality, and readily available rod for the present—an option that hasn’t been around for a generation. Put passion in your fly fishing. Fish bamboo.
Not Knowing
"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."
~by Henry David Thoreau~
Religion
"In my family, there was no clear division between religion and fly fishing."
~by Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It, 1976~
Business
"If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business."
~by Alfred W. Miller~
Art?
"O, sir, doubt not that Angling is an art; is it not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly?"
~by Isaak Walton~
Fishing Poles
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles."
~by Doug Larsen~
keep looking »
-
New on the Blog
-
Subscriptions
-
Products
-
Buzz About Headwaters
"Now a new line of fly rods from the Oregon-based Headwaters Bamboo Rod Co. is designed for anglers on a modest budget who don't want to wait months for a rod."
