Lesson 5: Lines for bamboo

Bamboo School · Lesson 5 of 12 · about 6 minutes

Builds on: Short Course Lesson 1 (bamboo bends deeper than graphite and loads on very little line). Here's what that means for the line you put on it.

Most people put a lot of thought into the rod and very little into the line. Then they cast the new rod with whatever line was on their old graphite reel, and wonder why it feels dull.

The line is half the system. On bamboo it may be more than half. A cane rod loads on the weight of the line in the air, and it tells you right away when that weight is wrong.

In the Short Course you saw that bamboo bends deeper than graphite and loads on very little line. This lesson is about giving it the right line to do that with.

What the number on the rod means

A line weight is a measurement. The standard rates a fly line by the weight of its first 30 feet, not counting the short level tip. A 5-weight line has a set weight for those 30 feet, within a small tolerance.

The number on a rod is the maker's answer to a simpler question: what weight of line, carried in the air, bends this rod the way it was meant to bend?

Two things follow. First, the rating assumes roughly 30 feet of line out. Cast 15 feet and you have about half that weight working the rod. Cast 50 and you have a lot more. Second, rod ratings were never as exact as line ratings. Before the modern number system, lines were sized by letters that described their diameter, and many of the classic tapers were drawn in that era, for the lines of their day.

So treat the number on the shaft as a starting point.

Why bamboo likes a heavier line

Here's the practical rule, and it's one of the most useful things in this course: bamboo usually fishes better slightly over-lined. A rod marked for a 5-weight often comes alive with a 5.5 or a 6.

The reason goes back to how cane loads. A bamboo rod bends deep, into the middle and often toward the cork. It takes real weight in the air to start that bend, especially at the short distances where most trout fishing happens. On a 20-foot cast, a true 5-weight line may not carry enough mass to load a 5-weight cane rod fully. Add a little weight and the rod starts working on less line.

You'll feel the difference at 15 feet first. The rod stops feeling stiff and starts feeling present.

There's a limit. If you carry a lot of line in the air, 50 feet or more, the extra weight adds up and can overload the rod. The loop gets heavy and wide. The timing turns sluggish. So a heavier line is a choice that favors short and middle distances. For most bamboo fishing, that's the right trade.

We spec the recommended line for every rod we sell, with this already in mind. If you're not sure what to put on your rod, ask. That beats guessing from the number on the shaft.

Double taper or weight forward

Most fly lines sold today are weight forward. The mass sits in a heavy front section, then drops to a thin running line behind it. That design shoots well. You get the head out, let go, and the heavy front pulls the thin line after it. On a fast graphite rod built for distance, it makes sense.

A double taper is built differently. It has a long, even belly with the same taper at each end. There's no sudden drop to thin line, so the weight is spread along most of the line.

On bamboo, the double taper is usually the better match:

• It turns over gently. The front taper lets the leader roll out softly, which suits the slower, even loop a cane rod makes.
• It roll casts well. The full belly carries energy through the whole line, so a roll cast keeps going instead of dying halfway.
• It mends well. With no thin running line, you can lift and move line on the water at 40 feet almost as easily as at 20.
• It lasts. When the front end wears out, turn the line around and fish the other end.

A weight forward line still has a place. If you're throwing big flies on big water, it can help carry them, and some anglers like one on a faster taper. But for dry flies at close and middle range, the double taper is the line most bamboo rods were designed around.

Silk and synthetic

Before modern coated lines, fly lines were braided silk. Many classic tapers were drawn for silk, and plenty of bamboo anglers still fish it.

Silk has real strengths. For its weight, it's thinner than a synthetic line, so it slips through the air and through wind well. It lands quietly. And it has a feel in the guides that the people who fish it don't want to give up.

It also asks a lot of you. Silk doesn't float by itself. You dress it with a line dressing such as Mucilin before you fish, and again during the day. After fishing, you strip it off the reel and let it dry fully, or it goes tacky and starts to break down. Skip that care and a silk line won't last.

Synthetic lines float on their own, need little care, and hold up to a season of neglect. The catch is that most of them are made for graphite. That means weight forward, a stiffer coating and a profile built for distance.

We don't sell a silk line right now. If you fish silk from somewhere else, our small Mucilin maintenance kit is there for it.

SX Series: our answer

The line we sell for bamboo is the SX Series. It's a synthetic double taper designed for bamboo rods. The goal was simple: cast like silk, without silk's upkeep.

You get the double-taper profile that suits a deep-loading rod. You get a line that floats on its own and doesn't need drying after every trip. And it comes with a furled mono leader, which is the next piece of the system.

Leaders that suit cane

A furled leader is made of strands twisted together, instead of one extruded tapered piece of monofilament. It has very little memory, so it comes off the reel straight. It also turns over smoothly, carrying the line's energy through to the fly without a kick at the end. You tie tippet to the end and replace only the tippet as you fish.

That smooth handoff is what you want on bamboo. A slow, even loop doesn't need a stiff leader snapping the fly over. It needs one that finishes what the line started.

Leader length follows the water. Clear, flat water and spooky fish want a longer leader and finer tippet. Bigger flies and broken water let you go shorter and heavier, which turns the fly over more easily.

Putting it together

Start with the rod's recommended line, which on bamboo usually leans a little heavy. Pick a double taper unless you have a reason not to. Then fit the leader to the water.

A few patterns hold across our lineup. The rods marked Medium load deep, and they gain the most from a line that brings them to life at short range. The Henrys Fork, our parabolic, is the clearest example. The Medium Fast rods, like the Rogue and the Deschutes, carry more line in the air without complaint, so they're more at home at distance and with bigger flies. And on small water with the Grande Ronde, you'll often have so little line out that a slightly heavier line makes the biggest difference of all.

Get the line right and the rod you already own will feel like a better rod.

Next: The tapers in your hand didn't come from nowhere. Lesson 6 maps the schools of rod design, East, Midwest and West, and shows where each of our tapers fits.