Swing the Fly has a great video on Canadian bamboo rod maker and spey fisherman James Reid. Loved the logo he's got on his shop door. Speak it Jim.
Here's a link to the video.
Here's a link to the video.
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James Reid, Bamboo Rodmaker
- Thread starter Dave Westburg
- Start date
Denwor54
Life of the Party
Thanks for sharing Dave, I have had some communication with James and ordered a rod in 2020 and he had been awesome to deal with. My rod is scheduled to be built in 2024-25 and look forward to receiving it. This order also inspired me to build my own rods as 5 years is a long time to wait. He has been supportive and encouraging in my learning curve and I have never asked for his taper or designs. I respect that as some builders think your poaching there tapers and I have never gotten that feel from him. His rods are very well made and hopefully I can produce a rod that is up to his standards. James, Bob Clay, Mark Shamburg, and Jim Reid are making some of the best modern rods out there.
That was fun to watch, thanks for posting this Dave.
I had thought about, and wished I’d ordered a rod from him, back when I first became familiar with his northwest appropriate rods and tapers about a dozen years ago. He makes some good ones!
I had thought about, and wished I’d ordered a rod from him, back when I first became familiar with his northwest appropriate rods and tapers about a dozen years ago. He makes some good ones!
The only thing he can't do is build a 9'6" or 10' 6 weight spliced bamboo rod for for salt water cutthroat which weighs less than 6 ounces. I asked him and he said it couldn't be done. He's refreshingly honest.
You might ask Chris Carlin the same question. Carlin is an expert rod designer and maker with a PNW and Alaska fishing focus.
It's a spliced fly rod. A spliced fly rod has tapered ends. You tape it together when you fish using hockey tape or electrical tape. Spliced rods are used for bamboo spey rods because the torque stresses of a single or double spey cast can weaken the bamboo around a ferrule.
I own three spliced Sharpes fly rods. 13', 12' and 10'. They are roll casting and spey casting machines. There’s no metal ferrule to deaden the action.
You can see james taping the rod before fishing in the video.
Thanks Dave!
Very interested Dennis. I'll buy one from you. Don't mind if it's spliced on account of the salt. Will be very curious about what you learn as you experiment with tapers.
What rod did you order from James?
Denwor54
Life of the Party
No worries Dave I will build you one free of charge as I‘m still learning and my only ask is input on how the rod performs and what you feel would make it better. I’m building a bunch of two handers and that all I have asked the guys is to give me there input to build a better rod. I have 4 6 weights that I have from different builders and will use those to give me a base line for my builds. I love longer rods and I’m hoping that I can build a bamboo single hander that is pleasant to fish and fills my expectations. As far as what I ordered from James has not been determined but I’m leaning to one of his Spey tapers not the shorter faster tapers. So when my build slot comes up we will come up with a length that I would like. My desired length is 12 1/2 to 13 ft 7/8 with a Spey style not Scandi if that answers your question.
I'm really impressed you're going for that long of rods and keeping it as a 6wt. I remember your casting style is really smooth, so I'll be curious if us mortals can slow down our cast enough. Bob Clay was very helpful when I was working on some doublehand trout rods. It took a couple tries but I finally got a 3/4wt I was happy with. I'm not sure if he is still answering his phone as I believe he retired.....but that might make him even more open to talking. A really nice guy.
Good luck on your quest. What made you decide on a five sided blank? Did you find making the splice joints to be more of challenge as a result?
Are you impregnating your blanks also? Rod building, especially bamboo, is so delicate. I'm psyched for you.
Mark
Good luck on your quest. What made you decide on a five sided blank? Did you find making the splice joints to be more of challenge as a result?
Are you impregnating your blanks also? Rod building, especially bamboo, is so delicate. I'm psyched for you.
Mark
Denwor54
Life of the Party
Currently I have been very happy with 5 sided rods as my tooling is set for right now. I have with my limited experience that 5 sided over 6 sided the 5 sided are quicker than the 6 sided rods I have built so far. I have been experimenting with with scalloping and trying to get a feel how that impacts the action. So far I have been happy with the results and I feel that this will make the longer rods perform better. I also like how the 5 sided rod recovers in comparison to the 6 sided which is big deal as far as line tracking. I have not had any problems with splicing as I made a jig which has worked out. I haven’t looked into dipping my rods or impregnating the rod yet but I might play with that in the future. I have been fortunate to have some mentoring that has helped with the learning curve. I appreciate your kind words on my casting and look forward to learning more about bamboo rod building.
I don't fish two-handed rods or spliced rods like Dave does, but if you ever decide to build an all-around 9' six weight one-hander with scalloping please give me a shout!
