Fine handcrafted Bamboo fly rods

Grampa had it right! Top quality bamboo is better than glass or graphite for fly rods. Yes, it is heavier than graphite – my 8’ hollowbuilt 5 wt weighs 4.6 oz.; my 9’ graphite weighs 3.7 oz. but my 8’ bamboo rod has a better “feel”, better balance, and, because it is more flexible. it takes less effort to cast. The mass producers of graphite rods want you to believe that graphite is a superior material but it breaks easier than bamboo and cannot be repaired. It is, however, much cheaper to mass produce graphite rod blanks.

I believe that proper balance in a rod is far more important than an ounce or two of weight. Tip heavy rods tire your arm out, a well balanced rod can be cast all day. With a properly balanced bamboo rod you don’t have to look over your shoulder to know if the back cast has unrolled, you can feel it in your casting hand. My rods are designed to balance within one inch of the top of the grip with 30’ of line out. This balance improves the “feel” of the rod being cast and the accuracy of the cast.

I design my own tapers often taking the best features of several designs adding a few twists of my own and then combine them into a new design. My taper designs are grouped into “families”. The families are scaled from 3 wt. to 7 wt. All of the rods in a given family have the same casting characteristics.

JW Healy

rodmaker