Found myself looking at these while at the dentist office.

Has anyone done one of these? which one? what did you think?

The idea seems pretty cool but then also seems pretty terrible for the exact same reasons. Being stuck in a workshop for 8-10 hours a day for 5-10 days with a craftsman learning how to make a fishing pole out of a piece of grass and some worm vomit. For the low price of $1500-2500.

I mean if you get a great teacher it would be an amazing experience. if you get a cantankerous bastage it would be a nightmare.

This and the A&M BBQ camp are on my to-do list.

Awesome. Can you share which one?

Harry Boyd in Winnsboro, La.

is he the one with the multiple options for how many days and how far you get along?

Really looking forward to hearing about your class.

The more I look into this the more serious I get about doing it.

Harry Boyd mentioned above offers a very good class and is a nice guy who I have known for many years.

Bill Oyster's class in North Georgia is in many people's opinion the best. Check out his website for the engraving alone. He also caught a Grand Slam here at El Pescador Belize last year, all on bamboo fly rods he built.

Oyster Bamboo

For the man that has everything indeed.

Oyster was the first one I looked at.

There are quite a few of them out there. Several are 1 or 2 person classes. Some you come out with a fully finished 2 tipped rod that you designed the tapper on, others you come out with a partially finished single tip rod that you (or they) will finish.

I'm curious. In these classes, are you provided with a bamboo blank, or are you actually making the blank from pieces of split bamboo? If provided with a blank, seems like it would be no different than making any fly rod - I actually refinished an old bamboo rod left to me by my grandfather a few years ago - stripped, refinished, new titanium guides. It was a lot of fun and turned out nice. I've made a number of rods with Sage blanks too. My favorite is my first, a Sage XP 590.

Harry Boyd starts you with a culm of bamboo and you split, planes, glues, install ferrules, qrips, guides, finish ... plus a few intermediate steps... ezpz in 6 days.

I'll let you know!

That's pretty cool. Melissa and I are thinking of retiring in Blue Ridge when we finish our work in Zambia (in about 4 1/2 years). We'll be there in June to speak to the Presbyterian Church and I might stick my head in the shop. One of the church members was the president of the GA Trout Unlimited.

I hate you.....Blue Ridge is a beautiful town.

aggiebear69 said:

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Harry Boyd starts you with a culm of bamboo and you split, planes, glues, install ferrules, qrips, guides, finish ... plus a few intermediate steps... ezpz in 6 days.

I'll let you know!

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Well we're waiting

Send me an email address. I'll send you a set of photos! I'll not fight TexAgs photo puzzle.

I'm aggiebear69@gmail.com

Post assist for aggiebear:

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This is a 6'6" two piece 5 weight rod. Only lawn cast so far with a WF 5 line in the icy morning in Winnsboro two weeks ago. I wanted to let the varnish dry for a couple of weeks and wait until it is not raining in College Station. I built two tips.

Harry Boyd is a superb teacher. His technique is easy even for an old fisherman like me. Can't recommend him highly enough.

The bamboo culm is what I started with, flamed and split. I got a little darker than I wanted but turned out pretty anyway. Splitting and flaming are not hard ... just technique. The strips are the ever smaller reductions before planing began! The reel seat is from a madrone tree in my front yard in Medina, Bandera County - off the Vanderpool highway.

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Thanks for posting for Aggiebear. Super cool work, thanks for sharing. I may Have to try this myself one day!

Thank you for posting photos ... Id rather plane bamboo strips than mess with computers