Casting grass

Fly fishers tend to be fickle types. We are forever seeking the perfect fly rod to match our casting styles. Like fraternity boys at a sorority mixer, we cannot decide which is the most desirable girl. In the past two years, I found myself fishing more and more with a rod made of grass.

Some of my friends just smile and shake their heads. They seem to feel that I have simply fallen in with the wrong crowd. The conventional wisdom is that bamboo fly rods are out of date, unable to compete with the newer plastic rods of more recent manufacture. Those folks have not had the sensual pleasure of casting any one of a number of bamboo rods currently being produced by a disparate number of rod makers.

Last year, I purchased two rods from T. Kumakirri, a Japanese rod maker who resides in Kent, Ohio. In my opinion, and in that of the Graham brothers, both of these rods are superior to similar, older bamboo rods that we owned. They make a silk fly line sing.

In September, I was able to cast a seven-and-one-half foot, hollow-built, Per Brandin rod and was amazed by the fluid manner in which this rod cast a three-weight silk line. How good was that rod? Per’s rod allowed me to morph into a far better fly caster than I had ever been before. Rods built by Jim Payne and Paul Young were never able to work such a miracle. Unfortunately, I am going to have to wait a while before I actually own that magician’s wand. Per Brandin rods are not turned out by the hundreds, and they never seem to turn up on lists of pre-owned fly rods. Per’s production is further slowed by his penchant for doing additional research. This research is conducted on various trout streams both near and far. I will confess to having accompanied Per while he was conducting some of this research. I have watched in awe as he used one of his rods to cast a beautiful line to rising trout.

The price fly fishers are willing to pay for a Brandin rod would seem to indicate he has already achieved the pinnacle of perfection. Methinks the proper description of these days at a stream would be more properly described as rest and recreation rather than research. Then again, who am I to argue with a builder of such exquisite fishing rods? Per is one of those unique individuals who can take a hollow stem of grass two-and-one-half inches in diameter and turn it into a beautiful, smooth casting fly rod.

There is an ongoing discussion regarding which rod material makes a better fly rod, graphite or bamboo? To a large degree, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some claim that graphite will shoot a longer line. In my own experiments, strictly anecdotal, using the same line weight on similar rods, I find that not to be true. While graphite rods cast with a cold efficiency, bamboo rods cast like a lover’s caress, which turn the act of casting into a gratifying experience.

I’ll end this column with an anonymous quote. “If casting graphite is like typing an invoice on a word processor, then casting bamboo is like writing a letter to a close friend with a fountain pen.”