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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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~
 

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