Lesson 7: The bamboo stroke

Bamboo School · Lesson 7 of 12 · about 6 minutes

Builds on: Short Course Lesson 1 (wait a beat longer, because the bend has to work down the rod). Here's how to practice that, and what comes after it.

In the Short Course you learned the big adjustment. Bamboo makes you wait a beat longer on the back-cast, because the bend has to work down the rod toward your hand before it's loaded. That's most of it.

But "wait longer" is advice, not a skill. This lesson turns it into one. Then it takes the same thinking onto the water: roll casts, mends, wind, and the fish at the end of the line.

You've fished for years, so some of this will sound like old basics. On cane, the old basics are the whole game. The rod tells you the moment you skip one.

Find your pause

The pause isn't a fixed count. It depends on how much line is out. More line takes longer to straighten behind you.

Here's a drill that works:

1. Strip 20 feet of line off the reel. Make a slow back-cast and turn your head to watch it. Start forward the moment the line straightens and you feel a light tug in the cork.
2. Make ten casts at 20 feet, watching every back-cast. Then ten more without looking, trying to feel the same tug.
3. Add ten feet and repeat. Then add ten more.

By 40 feet you'll notice the pause has grown, and the tug comes later. That tug is the rod telling you it's loaded. After a few sessions you stop watching and start feeling.

Practice on grass or still water, where you aren't also trying to catch a fish. Tie on a tuft of yarn instead of a fly.

The stop

The stop is where the energy leaves the rod and goes into the line. Bamboo is heavier than graphite, and a heavier rod keeps moving if you let it. A soft, drifting stop lets the tip carry on, and the loop opens wide.

What you want is smooth acceleration to a crisp stop. Build speed evenly through the stroke, then stop the rod cleanly, with your thumb on top of the grip pushing toward the target. Don't punch it. A sudden burst of power spikes the load, and on cane that often shows up as a tailing loop or a wind knot in the leader.

Match the length of the stroke to the line. Short line, short stroke. As you add line, lengthen the stroke so the rod bends through a wider arc. A short stroke with a long line out is one of the common causes of tailing loops.

One more thing. Bamboo damps vibration. After a good stop, the tip settles fast instead of bouncing, and the loop stays clean. If your loops look shaky on cane, look at your stop before you blame the rod.

Drift and the longer cast

Drift is a small movement after the stop on the back-cast. As the line unrolls behind you, let the rod tip drift back and slightly up. It gives the forward stroke more room to accelerate through. It also keeps you from starting forward too early, which is exactly the habit bamboo punishes.

Drift matters most past 40 feet. At 25 feet you barely need it.

Go easy on false casting. Each false cast loads and unloads a heavier rod, and your arm will notice by afternoon. False cast enough to measure the distance, then deliver. If you need a little more line, shoot it on the last forward cast instead of carrying it all in the air.

Roll casts on cane

Bamboo is one of the best roll-casting tools there is. A rod that bends deep stores a lot of energy from the line hanging behind it. A double taper line carries that energy all the way to the leader. (Lesson 5 covered why.)

The mechanics are the same as on graphite, slowed down:

• Draw the rod back slowly until the line hangs in a curve behind your shoulder. That's the D-loop.
• Let it settle for a moment. Hurrying here is the same mistake as hurrying the back-cast.
• Drive forward and stop crisply, a little higher than you would on an overhead cast.

On a parabolic rod like the Henrys Fork, make the whole motion slower than feels natural. Let the rod load into the grip before you come forward.

Mending and line control

A longer rod mends more line. An 8-foot rod lifts and moves more line on the water than a 7-footer. That's one reason spring-creek and big-river anglers tend to reach for longer cane.

Mend early, before drag starts. Lift the line slightly off the water first, then flip the belly upstream with a smooth half circle of the rod tip. Cane's deeper bend keeps the motion soft, so you move the line without yanking the fly.

The reach cast is a mend you make before the line lands. As the loop unrolls on the forward cast, move the rod upstream. The line lands with slack built in on the upstream side, and the fly drifts longer before drag sets in.

Casting in wind

Wind is where bamboo asks the most of you, and where the urge to force it is strongest. Don't force it. Overpowering a cane rod collapses the loop.

Instead, try these:

• Lower the casting plane. Wind is usually weaker near the water, and a sidearm cast keeps the line under the worst of it.
• Tighten the loop with a crisp stop rather than more force.
• Into a headwind, aim the forward cast a little lower, at the water instead of above it.
• With the wind at your back, keep the back-cast low and let the wind carry the forward cast.
• A short haul with your line hand adds line speed without asking the rod for more.

If your water is windy most days, rod choice matters as much as technique. The Medium Fast rods, like the Rogue and the Deschutes, push line through wind more easily. That's part of Lesson 8.

Fighting and landing fish

This part surprises graphite anglers. Bamboo is kind to light tippet. The deep bend works like a shock absorber, so a fish that surges hits a rod that gives instead of a stiff lever.

Use that bend. But use the whole rod, not just the tip.

• Keep the rod well up, but not pointed straight at the sky.
• Don't high-stick. Holding the rod straight up, or bending it back over your shoulder, puts most of the load on the top few inches of the tip. That's the hardest thing you can do to a cane tip, and over time it's one way sets form.
• Use side pressure. Tipping the rod low and to one side turns a fish's head and puts the work into the stronger lower sections.
• Let the fish run when it wants to. Line slipping off the reel or through your fingers is easier on the rod than holding fast.

When it's time to land the fish, don't lift it with the rod. Lead it in with the rod held back and to the side, then slide it into the net head first. Hoisting a fish clear of the water puts its full weight on the tip at a bad angle.

After a long fight, sight down the tip. If it's taken a slight curve, that's normal. Lesson 9 covers straightening a set, and it's one more reason every Deluxe rod comes with two tips.

Next: Technique only goes so far if the rod doesn't suit the water. Lesson 8 maps every rod in the lineup to the water it was built for, and when a second rod makes sense.