ya not tomorrow, maybe this coming friday, i dont know. i do have a few things that i have been looking at, mostly that link. but if you do a yahoo google for bambo fly rod. you come up with a bunch of stuff, and if you actually by one you are looking over 900 bucks. so i think ill take my time and make one. but it will take a long long time. and if you find anything as well let me know.

I dont know of any club. but I did see a show on flyfishing america that feachered the "Boo Boys" from "Sweet Grass" fly rods. The had all worked for a big company and quit to make thier own rods. I think they were making make shift bamboo driers and building the stuff in thier garage. I havent looked at the site you posted yet but you might be able to make the rods with out all the fancy tools....

Building a bamboo rod is a pretty pricey venture and is not for the impatient. The shaping jigs and micro-planes alone could run several hundred to a couple thousand dollars. I thought about building a bamboo rod, but lost the urge after seeing the price of the tools. As an alternative, you might first try refurbishing an old bamboo rod. Often you can find salvagable blanks that can be re-wrapped, varnished, and install a new reel seat and grip. I have a 7'6" 4-wt bamboo that was built out of an old 8'-6" rod.

Brian, You might consider picking up a "re-conditionrd" bamboo ron on ebay. It's pretty much a hit or miss situation as far a quality, but if you're careful and ask all of the questions about the rod from the seller that are important, you can come away with a sweet casting rod for a fraction of what a new rod will set you back. I've picked up 2 so far on ebay. The first was a 7! 3 piece that the seller was rated for a 5wt. Well,the rod is pretty stiff and is better suited for a 6 or 7 wt. I paid about $150.00 for taht one. The second one is an 8' 2pc. 4-5 wt, which is slower and does in fact load with a 4wt and tosses a 4 or 5 wt. nicely.I paid $175.00 for it and never looked back. The point is until you hold the rod in your hand, cast it, fish it, it's pretty much a crap shoot with the cheap used bamboo, but you can score now and then with a really nice stick. I've also thought about building my own but theres a lot of knowlege and skill involved in building bamboo that must be aquired.Not to mention a Lot of time.  I've done a lot of research on unfinnished blanks and components which is another way to go to keep costs down. If you have any questions,let me know. I'd be glad to help. Tight lines, Viking      

...There is reading material here. ( clarksclassicflyrodforum.yuku.com) or look into a fiberglass rod classic or modern. They have tapers and actions like bamboo. Goodluck in your endeavor. Tight lines,

this is how i look at it, fly fishing to commune with nature, why not use the most natural rod? A bamboo fly fishing rod combines history, art, and sport. i my mind bamboo rods are more flexible than graphite, and they have a slower action which is great for leisurely and refined fishing, especially with dry fly presentation. it also has a much more natural, flowing and subtle casting capability. again great for dry fly fishing. i have actually had the opportunity to fish a bamboo rod one time the first time i started fly fishing and i was absolutly amazed by it. i couldnt believe how flimsy or delicate it was i thought i was going to break it. but after readin many magz and articles bamboo has been used for over 150 years and is still one of the best materials available for this purpose. It is actually very durable, flexible and can withstand all the rigors of fly fishing when properly treated and sealed. in my opinion once youve tried a bamboo fly rod, you will come to understand why so many fly fishermen are addicted to its charms. once you have your first experience with bamboo fly rods will attest to the slower presentation and more fluid casts that they will give you especially for those anglers who fish for wary trout on very light tippets. bamboo fly rods are inherently slow action. they are also quite a bit heavier in comparison to today's lightweight graphite and glass fly rods. despite this, and their HIGH COSTS, Bamboo fly rods are still considered the finest fly rods on the market today. and after all that, a bamboo rod that is well taken care of will last you your entire life. the way there are made is indistructable. if you step on it your good, if you fall on it your good, nothing against these rods these days but the thin wall nature of graphite makes it very vulnerable when compared against the solid make up of bamboo.

but this is just my opinion

thats a crazy story, but so so true. ya dont know if i am ready to shell out 1800, maybe 150-300 like viking was talkin about. i need to do some more research before i hit up ebay.

where did you pick it up at, and as far as finish you picked your own varnish, and guides and everything like that. again where did you get all that stuff.

how do you like it

As yukon mike stated above, I was gonna say you might wanna look at the dunsmuir rod co. I bet they would sell you a blank. I have wrapped a few spinning rods and it was really time consuming but not to diffucult, it turned out ok, That was with absolutly no tools either, Just hand wrapped em a few times then put a bunch of thick layers of clear varnish over the rod. When i went to the upper sac. and mccloud a few months ago i stopped by the dunsmuir rod co. they were closed, I was lookin in the window, Cool place, I bet they make a sweet rod. I might just have to lookk into a bamboo rod, But first i gotta get my waders to stop leaking !

Yes, and i dont think its mine. My box had two little compartments inside, One he found does not. Not surprising, I'm sure many people attack putah with a scientific anglers fly box full of midges. I gotta fix that wader leak before i fish again, It'll be easy to fix once i get something, just trying to decide what to use, The bicycle tube patch worked for about half the day,  Was an emergency repair guys ! Oh and hear is a peice of advice about what happened to my waders, Last weekend i broke a boot lace in the morning, So i couldn't realy tighten my boot completey, I walked alot that day and the loose fitting boot chaffed the back heel of my wader. Just one of those thing you can only learn from experience.

-- Edited by thecaptain at 18:41, 2007-11-27

Chris Rainey at Dunsmuir Rod Co. had a hip transplant operation and should be back in his shop pretty soon. The finish that both he and Randy Johnson put on bamboo is done by dipping
in a special finishing tank like the one shown in Wayne Cattanach's book on bamboo rod making.
They do all of their wrapping in Pearsall silk, and use reelseats milled by them or from
Bellinger. If you google Bellinger rods you will find that they offer bamboo from complete culms
to ready to wrap blanks and ready to wrap blanks with ferrules and with the handle and reelseat
area turned.

Mike

That would be pretty awesome to spend a week up there and build your own rod. And the upper sac. is open year round now.

Save your penny's Brian and we can do an upper sac. trip this winter if it dosen't get blown out. It's a pretty awesome river to fish, It's simply bueatiful up there, With huge mount. shasta as a backdrop. Ya just gotta be willing to do a little camping in the snow . Its all about being a trout bum man.

thats not a bad idea either, save up money and just fish with what i got. might just have to do that as well. we shall see after the new yr, with me moving into a new place and my trip back home to new york for a few weeks its gonna be a busy one. but we shall see.