Splitting cane

I'll bet the Swedish knife manufacturer didn't see this one coming.



At first it was hard, then you figured it out and began to think it's easy. A bad mistake, as the split starts to wander with your mind.

Trick is to bend the wider side. The difficulty is that the narrower side bends a lot easier.

Social rod maker

What I didn’t know was that the hobby of making bamboo fly rods is such a social activity. Much of the work is done alone, but a lot more time is spent talking with fellow rod makers, 3-years-old daughter who wants a pink fly rod, 5-year-old son who wants a rod longer than his dad has, workmates, friends, and, well, just about everybody willing to listen. At some point a sister-in-law’s husband told me about a guy that only ever speaks about cars. I got the point.



I believe that most of bamboo rod makers are engineers. Books, articles and internet sites about bamboo fly rod making deal at least as much about construction of required tools and machinery, as they deal with the actual process of bamboo crafting. My task is to prove to the world that a humanist can craft a bamboo fly rod. The small print is that this particular humanist has partnered with an engineer to build bamboo fly rods.



Tools and machinery is one of the reasons this hobby is so social. If you don’t have all the tools, and believe me – you don’t, you can either construct (engineering degree doesn’t hurt), buy (costs about ten times as much as the materials for a bamboo fly rod), or you can borrow them. I prefer the last, so it takes a bit mingling with the right people to make the rod.

Bite it, baby!

Splintering Cane: Feminine Reactions

I told my wife that the friend I'm going to build bamboo rods with had bought a bamboo fly rod.
- Why he wants to build a bamboo rod if he already bought one? She asked.
Why do the birds sing? Why the green is green? What keeps a rock from crumbling into dust?

The friend told he was casting his split-cane in the yard. A lady, a neighbor, walks past with a dog and smiles.
It is January, there is snow on the ground, pretty cold, about a hundred meters to the nearest lake shore, frozen lake shore, a guy is casting a fly rod as old as she. What's there to smile about?

Season Shift

A good trout fishing season is not counted by the number nor the size of the fish. I think it is something altogether different, though the fish do play a big part. Good seasons are counted by the memories, and even then not on the quantity but on the quality of the memories. Or perhaps I am mistaken here and just trying to justify too few fishing trips with the quality over quantity crap.

Whatever the case, I had great time fishing last summer. I didn't count the numbers. Even if I had, the season 2007 was probably the best ever. I stopped keeping records a couple seasons ago. This has everything to do with the improvement. The constant drive within me is to become a better fisherman. I just don't believe in statistics; even if I could collect enough data for a reliable statistical analysis, it would just confirm something I already knew. I'm trying to get the bigger picture.

What then will the next season bring? More trout for sure, but also there are projects to finish and new ones to start.

I have the ultimate rod building project to start with a friend. The holy grail of fly rod building. We are talking about split-cane here, bamboo. It is a crazy idea of course, or, crazy enough. When the friend asked, I replied that neither of us knows how to build one, 'we need a book' I said. 'Already have one, makes good bathroom reading", he replied. I didn't bother to consider my resolution any more and simply agreed to take part in the project.

We were drunk but the agreement holds: we are dead serious when the topic involves fly fishing.

December Trout

Went fishing yesterday. See you in the spring.

(For the record: The length of the day is currently 5 hours.)