I was just finishing the wraps on yet another bamboo spey rod and I was curious as to how many of the Spey Pages forum members have cast or fished a bamboo spey rod before? If you have, or own and use it regularly love to hear about it, if you have cast one at a clave, etc. and either liked the rod or didn't love to hear about that too, be specific about your likes and dislikes. Did the rod surprise you in any way? Was it a total let down that didn't live up to your expectations? Whatever you have to say about them, post up. Also might be cool to know which rod(s) you have cast, length, line wt, etc.
I have a Bob Clay Suskwa 12'1"-7/8 and I love it!!! It is one of the coolest rods I've ever owned. It is a 3 piece with extra tip and spliced joints. I cast a 400 to 420grn scandi on it. I like this rod so well I have another Bob Clay on the way. It should be here next March. Same configuration only 13'-8/9. I can't wait.
I've also owned 4 Sharpes spliced joint 13'-9wts. 3 I've sold and one is hanging over my head but now belongs to one of my adopted sons. If one is a good caster it will cast a Delta 7/8, 8/9, and 9/10. It will also cast a big Carron with 80' outside the rod tip. It is slow and powerful and while one has to wait on it, it will cast like a dream. It is a heavy stick but with a big reel it is balanced nicely and a pleasure to fish all day.
I have a Bob Clay Suskwa 12'1"-7/8 and I love it!!! It is one of the coolest rods I've ever owned. It is a 3 piece with extra tip and spliced joints. I cast a 400 to 420grn scandi on it. I like this rod so well I have another Bob Clay on the way. It should be here next March. Same configuration only 13'-8/9. I can't wait.
I can understand the excitement Poppy just expressed!! :smokin:
I also have a Bob Clay Riverwatch rod 12' 7/8 5 sided. It is a 3 pieces spliced joints and hallow built. It's actually not a slow rod at all... throw scandi head with darn good responsive 320-420 grain. For skagit SA casting, I prefer 480 grain skagit short. it handled 12' T14- T17 with lead eyed intruder surprisingly well... I also had sent this rod to my friend in Oregon for winter steelhead, and he sword this rod handle 540 grain skagit head and big steelhead ...
For a rod can handle 320 grain scandi to 540 grain skagit head with good feel... I know this is the rod I will be fishing all the time!
I have a 7/8 12 ft Sharpes Cane rod that I like to fish on special days out in Hawaii. It has some really good mojo and I have caught fish on it everytime I took it out. I would like to fish it one of these days for steelhead. I have a Spey Co River Spey reel on it but I think it needs a little more weight. Rod fishes nice scandi and skagit. Dean
Poppy.
I would have guessed you would have a few in the stable. Bob's rods are excellent, they cast beautifully and fish very, very well. That 12'1" rod is a gem. Mr. Clay is truely a man at the top of his craft. I have never cast the 13' Sharpes.... but I have swung the 12' and the 14'er. Yeah they got some heft to 'em... but like you say, patience and timing in the cast and they pretty much cast themselves.
(BTW.... that line splicing kit you sent out to me today will be used very often for dialing in lines for different rod tapers, Thanks again! What a time saver to be able to get all that stuff already put together in a kit! and for such a reasonable price too
Bonefish.
ok... that is just too cool for school man. I betcha the old english guy who made that rod in Aberdeen never ever, in a million years thought the rod would end up in the hands of an angler in Hawaii fishing the salt. Right on! Speyco was a good choice for a reel on that rod. The sharpes can be hard to balance out due to the position of the reelseat fitting being a bit higher up the butt of the rod. Wonder if Mr. Speyco could make you up a brass face and foot for your River Spey reel? What wt skagit head are you throwing on that 12'er? 500ish grains?
So far in the poll.... more guys have cast cane than not. Very cool and kinda surprising too.
Bob's Penta's are pretty much the ducks nuts. I cast his 11.5'er back in the summer and the rod had speed.... bordering on med/fast graphite. Needless to say i found it eye opening.
The 2 rods I fish most are both 12'ers. Both are spliced ferruled, hollowbuilt 3pc rods. The 8/9 wt is a varnished rod and is what i call my "Winter Run" taper (regressed butt, strong mid and tip). It was designed to cast SA and I like a 550gr rio Skagit flight on the rod and heavy sink tips with larger weighted flys, also throws a 480gr scandi a very long ways. The other is an impregnated rod and is a 6/7wt. This one was more designed around the scandi heads/underhand casting style. I call this taper my "Summer Run". The rod is very light and responsive with it's action coming from the top third of the rod, you can really throw very tight loops underhand on this rod. I really like a 385gr rio steelhead-scandi line on this rod with assorted 10' poly's, but I also have a Skagit flight in 450 for it as well and a selection of T8 Mow style tips.
Bamboo speys love the shooting heads
The rod I was finishing the wraps on tonight that got me wondering is another 12'er 6/7 "summer run" that I am building for an avid steelheader on Vancouver island. The rod was made to balance with his Loop Classic (which ever one the smaller of the 2 spey sizes is... i think it is a 7-9)
No worries brotha. Lets try to get out one of these days. I got enough rods to keep you casting for 2 days! hahaha.
"For me it was like looking over the fence at the naked neighbor girl. Once you start you can't stop.
Course I have the same problem with some other angling trinkets as well."................ this statement hits too close to home My wife really "strongly feels" that i do not need anymore old reels
There we go. We finally got a vote for someone who has cast a bamboo spey and didn't like it! Cool. Hopefully some of the guys who don't like em will post up about it. I am more than interested in the other side of the fence (no.... not the neighbors fence POPPY!)
Those look kinda look like bamboo ferrules, instead of tape. maybe im wrong though.
I just finished my first bamboo 2h rod a couple weeks ago. finally had the dough to get reel and line, not really but i spent it anyways. hehe
I should be out making cast with it in a week id guess. waitin on the mail.
This thing is a dang noodle though. haha i might need to make a stronger tip as my taper was a little week around the splice for this section. but maybe thats how they all are, ive never cast one yet.
I'm pretty sure that is a splice joint in the Sharpes he is casting
Congrats on your first spey rod man! As there are very few published tapers available to the rod maker for True spey rods, it takes a bit of dedication on the part of the maker to develop a taper that really works. If you are finding your rod to be a bit of a "noodle" Try a way lighter line wt than you originally assumed it would take. Say if you use a program like RodDNA or Hexrod to design your rod with and you assumed by the Stress graph that the rod would take a 9wt line (single hand 9wt that is as these programs do not have allowances for spey line wts) Try something in the grain range of a single hand 6 or 7wt line.... By all means make a new tip for the rod, but don't be so quick to dismiss the first one you made, if you line it right you will be at the very least able to learn a ton from it, at the most you might find that it is really nice to cast with a lighter wt scandi type head .... now the "weak" splice could give you problems if it is so weak as to creat a hinge in the taper, that would also give the rod some very weird casting quirks too.
Let us all know when you get your new line and how she flies! What line did you order for the rod?
Peter.
Right on. That is a line that has been suggested to me to try out and me thinks I will be picking one up shortly. Loved the casting vid by BTW. Looks like a decent flow to get a good solid footing in. What reel do you hang on that 12'er to balance it out?
From what I've seen they are outside my price range, pretty much all custom made right? Would love to try one, but hell I've never actually seen one except in pics.
From what I've seen they are outside my price range, pretty much all custom made right? Would love to try one, but hell I've never actually seen one except in pics.
If you ever get down to NE Indiana you are welcome to give mine a try. I will have a couple with me at the "Great Lakes Fly Tying Expo" on December 3rd in Holt, Michigan if that would work for you.
thank you! i look forward building the next one. im not sure what brand or whatever it is, but poppy is lettting me try three different weights of scandi line. 480 500 and 520 i think they were.
I "designed" it to throw 500 grains of line and the taper seems to be on par with the tapers that are available for 7/8.
so hopefully she works with the scandi line like you mentioned
I got them this afternoon! I did a few lawn cast with the 480 and was able to get out some decent cast.
the only thing that sucks, Ive never cast a spey rod before, I dont know what Im looking for to tell if its a good fit for the rod. It didnt feel like over loaded I guess, i need to try again tomorrow some. how far should i be able to cast this on the lawn?
I just bought a 12’6” 7/8 Winston, yes Winston Bamboo spey rod from a guy on flea bay...kinda took a chance but inquired about it with Winston and was apparently made as a prototype in 1994...and what a gorgeous piece it is and casts beautifully. Funny thing though, It was supposedly built with fiberglass ferrules per Winston’s records but ha nickel ferrules that as far as I can tell exactly match the other wraps and are typical of Winston, and all sections are correct length. So, I have one unique spey rod that I will gently fish although the history of it is sparse. I may just give Glenn a call at Sweetgrass and see what recollections he may have.
PeterPan.... Very cool idea to make a new screw in butt cap of some heavier material for that rod, then you can just keep the original. Nice
Fishbum.... Did ya vote "not my cuppa tea"
Cachanded... You got some pics of this one-off winston? I'm sure Mr. Brackett can fill you in on a bit of the rods history. If you find out, let us know.
Intruder... I'll look it up. I would imagine it is in Ray's Book. I might suggest Taking the taper for the 12' Sharpes and shortening it to 11' and tweaking the mid and tip a bit to give them some more power. If your looking for an 11' 7wt. That would build out into a gun of a rod. Just a thought.
Just had a look at the numbers for the Gould 11' 7wt taper. Ray Builds sweet rods and has for a very long time. Lookin at the numbers for the taper in Ray's book it is to my eye more of a 4-5wt Switch/Spey. The tip and mid look a tad weak for line lifting of a 7wt line. It would however load up well with a DT8 or WF9 single handed line, or one of the lighter Scandi heads available, something like a 280 grain, or a light Skagit 320-330 ish or so, would also work well with the many "switch" lines currently out there. Would make a great heavy trout/light steelhead rod for sure.
Hope that helps you out some.
James
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