For many of today's anglers, bamboo rods bring back memories of bygone years, of a time when fishing was simpler, perhaps less demanding. Back in a time when bamboo was really the only rod material and before modern technology enabled us to create the wide range of rods on the market today. Yet, some anglers, including myself, still think fondly of bamboo rods as wonderful instruments for casting and fishing. My first fishing experiences were with an old Montague bamboo rod, when I fished for cutthroat trout in a small mountain stream in southwestern Montana, when, lacking finesse, my only thoughts were how could I fool a fish by sneaking a grasshopper into the stream without being seen.

I grew up at my parents' El Western Motel in Ennis, Montana, home of the famous Madison River. It was there that I met my fly fishing mentor, Howard Sykes, a skillful fly fisher from New Jersey, under whose careful eye my love for fly-fishing blossomed. Howard's favorite rod was a Leonard bamboo. As he taught me to cast and to fly fish, he often let me use it, and I became enamored of its precision and grace in presenting a fly.

In those days, I often showed our motel guests where to fish, and gradually I grew into an early career as a fishing guide. Anglers came from all over the United States to fish the Madison River and nearby streams, and I regularly guided many of them. Naturally, they always brought with them their favorite rods, bamboo rods made by Winston, Orvis, Leonard, Powell, Payne, Phillipson, and Paul Young. Many of these rods were the finest examples of bamboo rod making, and, as these anglers let me try their rods, my appreciation for bamboo rods grew, as did my passion for them. As a result of these experiences, I assembled my own collection of bamboo fishing rods including an old Heddon, a Phillipson, an Orvis Battenkill, and several Winstons. I fished almost exclusively with bamboo rods until the early '70s.

At that time, I had no idea that one day I would own one of the famous companies in fly-fishing, the R.L.Winston Rod Company. When I bought Winston in 1973, the company was making fiberglass and bamboo rods. Shortly thereafter, graphite was introduced as a rod-making material, and it quickly replaced fiberglass. Even though the bulk of our rods were made from composite materials during my tenure at Winston, we continued making fine bamboo rods. My partner, Glenn Brackett, and I greatly valued the tradition of bamboo rods, and we were clear that we wanted to continue their heritage in Winston's history and the sport of fly-fishing. We continually refined the rod tapers and production methods to improve the quality necessary for great rods. This work gave me extensive experience working with bamboo, designing rod tapers, and creating rods.

Despite the popularity of graphite as a rod-making material, it hasn't entirely replaced bamboo rods, many of which are still highly prized by anglers not only for their collector's value but also for their great fishing attributes. How could this be? Perhaps the greatest reason is that bamboo rods have been the foundation of our modern fly fishing heritage since the late 1800s. There have been countless rodmakers pursuing the craft of designing and building rods to match their ideas for the perfect casting and fishing rod. Many of these rods are truly works of art; they represent the attainment of near perfection in the embodiment of form and function.

Bamboo rods have an inherent charm because of their natural material and are often especially beautiful with their jewel like hardware, subtle thread colors, carefully wrapped guides, graceful cork grips, and wood seats. The natural color of bamboo is a light straw color and, with heat-treating, ranges to a dark caramel tone. Its delicate grain radiates through the typical high gloss varnish finish and the various colored wrapping threads serve to highlight this natural beauty. Bamboo as a natural material is also unparalleled in its strength and resilience. Most rods created decades ago still retain their original casting and fishing capability. Moreover, there is a substantial market for used bamboo rods created by master craftsmen from previous eras, and, happily, many of these rods are still fished. The fine bamboo rods created in the past have continued to increase in value over time because of their intrinsic value and the fact that the craftsmen who made them are no longer alive.

And, finally, there is another reason that many modern anglers often forget or overlook about bamboo rods. They can be absolutely great fishing rods! Just because they are bamboo doesn't mean that they are great rods, but the material certainly has the potential to be made into wonderful rods. As with any rod-making material, proper design is crucial. In my opinion, because of its inherent heavier weight over other materials, bamboo is the most challenging material with which to design rods to achieve wonderful action. However, this relatively small increase in weight, particularly in trout rods, is also one of its advantages, for this additional weight gives these rods an inherent loading characteristic that makes them very smooth casting.

In the middle 1990s, I invented and then completed the design work for the Morgan Bamboo Hand Mill. This revolutionary mill allows a bamboo rodmaker to cut bamboo strips easily and accurately and to carry on the long tradition of making bamboo rods without a major investment in a power-milling machine.

In early 1999, Bill Blackburn, an amateur bamboo rodmaker from Bozeman, Montana, who had built several rods using a traditional planing form and hand plane ordered a Hand Mill. When he came to pick up his mill, I asked him if he knew of anyone that I could hire to help me build Hand Mills. As it so happened, Bill was looking for a job. Not only did he make bamboo rods, but he also had a degree in industrial arts. This was a great combination to help produce the Hand Mills because he understood how bamboo strips had to be cut for rods, and he was familiar with machinery. I hired Bill immediately.

In the beginning of our rod-making business, we didn't think it would be practical to build bamboo rods since we would have to make a power-milling machine, a daunting task. In addition, Gerri wouldn't have enough time to build the graphite rods and do all of the bamboo work. However, we saw a great opportunity for Bill to devote some time to building bamboo rods in addition to working on the Hand Mills. So soon after Bill came to work for us, Gerri and I talked with him about the possibilities of building bamboo rods, and we all enthusiastically decided that it would be a great project. The three of us would work cooperatively to build the rods. So, as it turned out, my invention of the Hand Mill allows us to build fine bamboo rods.

Bill and I started putting together our bamboo shop. We had to build the oven, calibrate it for proper heat-treating, build and fine tune the glue binder, and attend to the many other details of a bamboo shop. I must admit that it took a lot longer than I anticipated getting our shop ready to build bamboo rods, but we took our time to make sure that everything was right and worked well.

We first realized that our goal in building bamboo rods would have to be modest in its scope because of our small production capabilities, so we decided we would just make 200 rods. However, since then we have changed our minds and will make somewhere around 150 rods. In addition, rather than try to make a lot of different lengths and line sizes we are concentrating on just three of the most popular models: a 7' #3, a 7' #4, and a 7 1/2' #5. We expect to build some of these rods ahead of orders and ship them as they are sold.

The most important aspect of a rod for me has always been its casting and fishing attributes. A great rod has to become a good friend on the stream, one that delivers the line and fly with ease and precision. It is the rod you always choose when going to fish that special spot where you can connect to the simplicity and beauty of nature. It helps you forget your troubles and be at peace with life. This is what great rods have done for me and what I hope they can do for you.

Because these are my last bamboo rod designs, we wanted them to be very special rods in other ways too. Every aspect of the rod fittings, tube, and bag has been carefully scrutinized to provide a rod that is aesthetically pleasing to the angler while at the same time providing a very functional rod. We hope these rods become their owners' favorites.

It's no surprise to those of you familiar with my rod design philosophy, regardless of the material, that I'm a strong advocate of building rods that flex and work as rods did in previous eras. I believe strongly that this is another reason for bamboo's continued acceptance as a great rod-making material; bamboo rods bend and work at the distances that anglers fish. The rod taper style on our rods is progressive which has always been my favorite, as well as the favorite of most anglers. The tips are the correct stiffness for easy, yet positive, casting, and the strength increases gradually into the butt for adequate power. When you cast these rods, you can manipulate the line easily to form a narrow loop or to open it up for a wonderfully delicate delivery.

We are using lightweight snake guides which is a very important aspect of the rod design because the static load on the rod from guides and tip-tops is thereby reduced as much as possible. This allows the delicate feeling of the bamboo to come through comparatively unhindered.

When it comes to rod design, the traditional school of thought holds that one starts with some basic tapers that one likes and then one builds a number of interchangeable butts and tips and casts each combination to refine the taper. That's exactly what we did. After casting a number of combinations, we decided on the best set, but these rods still weren't quite what we wanted. So we made another series of tips and butts for each model and they were cast again. In two cases, the final combinations felt perfect, but one model needed an additional set of tips. This process was time-consuming, but the resulting rods are truly great. All of the prototype casting, it should be noted, was done with double taper lines. A number of people have cast these prototypes and fished them on streams. These anglers all agree that we have designed a series of exceptional rods that are easy to cast, have very smooth action, and have great balance.

We purchase our bamboo from a broker who travels to China where he hand selects it. He travels to the tiny village of Aozai in the Guangdong Province. This is the village that the botanist F.C. McClure, who is the Westerner who named this bamboo Arundinaria amabilis in the 1920s, identified as the center of the Tonkin bamboo region.

Our broker thinks that things aren't much different now than they were then. The collection of bamboo is still a slow process; the poles are cut by hand and carried out to rivers in small bundles. Upon reaching the river, the bamboo is scrubbed by hand using sand from the riverbank. From there, the poles are either floated down the river in rafts or carried on boats. The bamboo is then dried, sorted, and bundled into groups of ten poles for shipping.

The bamboo that I used to get when I was at Winston had several defects, but some of these are absent in what I receive from our broker. The poles no longer have grower's marks that have been scraped on the butts with a knife or heat straightening areas that are damaged when the poles are heated over a fire then bent over an iron stake to straighten them. A great many poles are rejected in China because they are not straight, have large areas of damage or discoloration, have shallow power fiber depth, or are not dense. This presorting provides bamboo poles that have a much higher overall quality than I have seen before. However, because of our rigorous selection, we still only use five to ten percent of this bamboo.

We carefully select our bamboo for straightness, strong power fibers, density, and lack of cosmetic blemishes. When Bill first started sorting the bamboo, he couldn't believe the high rejection rate that I insisted on for blemishes and cosmetic defects. However, it has always been my contention that bamboo rods should reflect the highest standards of materials and workmanship. All of the preparation work is carefully done to maintain the integrity of the bamboo. The nodes are hand filed, heated, and gently pressed to level the bamboo surface without damaging the fibers. An integral part of this process is to straighten the bamboo at the nodes resulting in strips that glue very straight.

We meticulously monitor the heat-treating to make sure that each batch is evenly colored and has the correct tempering. Proper heat-treating is also essential to increasing the modulus of elasticity of the bamboo and to making it more set resistant. The final step is a light ammonium toning to bring out the rich, warm color of the bamboo.

Each bamboo strip is hand planed using the Hand Mill that provides the proper taper and consistency between strips. In order to keep the rods lightweight, the butts and tips are hollow-fluted, which makes them not only lighter, but also more responsive.

In keeping with the lightweight design the ferrules will be made of precision drawn nickel silver tubing using the Super Swiss truncated design. As is the tradition of fine bamboo rods, each of our rods comes with two matching tips. The rods will not have a hook keeper.

A few additional special features complete these unique rods. The female ferrules have a specially designed nickel silver plug that matches our rod tube cap and collar. The winding checks are also nickel silver and are hexagonal inside and outside to match the form of the bamboo.

In line with our goal of keeping the rod weight to a minimum, each guide is carefully wrapped with the least amount of extra thread consistent with good strength and durability. The wrappings are then hand-coated with a durable and protective finish. Written on the rod are the length, line size, serial number, and the year made. Each serial number will have the designation of being one of two hundred: 1/200, 2/200, 3/200, etc. As a final personal touch, the owner's name is inscribed on the rod. Each rod is coated with a flawless high quality marine spar varnish.

These bamboo rods exquisitely represent the tradition I have established based on my years of experience in the rod business. It takes these years of observation to finally see what separates ordinary rods from great ones. I realize that I have made my living building fly rods, but I haven't thought of it as a business venture as much as a sharing of my love of the sport. I believe that I have a unique gift of knowing what makes a great fly rod as well as the ability to convert this knowledge into rods that anglers love to fish.

Gerri and I have established a reputation for building graphite rods under the Tom Morgan Rodsmiths brand that are not only beautiful, but are great fishing rods. Now Bill Blackburn has joined us to build exceptional bamboo rods to let us express our creativity in beauty, design, and function. These are exceptional rods which I am confident will become legendary and treasured by their owners.

Rod serial numbers will be assigned in the order that we receive your order. We ask for a 25% deposit with the balance to be paid when we start the final assembly of your rod. The rod will be delivered within 4 months of the final payment.

You will be notified of your serial number at the time of your deposit and the approximate delivery year of the finished rod. As we deliver rods, we will ask the next customers to pay their deposits. We will keep a list of potential customers in the sequence that we receive their orders and notify them as their name comes up on the list. We would like to receive your deposit within one month of notification. If, when you are notified that your deposit is due, you decide not to purchase a rod, the next customer in line will be given the opportunity to purchase a rod.

Bamboo Rod Specifications

The rods are two-piece, two tips, an agate stripping guide, polished nickel silver slide band and bright fittings or black seat and black fittings, or polished nickel silver up-lock real seat and a wood spacer of your choice. The handle is a cigar, half-wells, or custom cork grip. The rods are provided with our special cloth bag, our distinctive aluminum case, and an outer protective bag.

3-Weight.
This is a sweet casting rod for fishing small dry flies or nymphs where a careful presentation and finesse are required. It is also a great rod for fishing small fish in freestone streams where a short and quick cast is productive. These rods have supple, sensitive tips for fishing small flies and light tippets, but they have enough power in the butt for medium length casts.

A customer wanted a longer 3-weight rod and asked if we could build one.  A number of years ago we built a 7'3" rod that everybody who cast it liked very much so we agreed to build him one and decided to add it to our other 3-weight.  This length is also very popular in Japan.

4-Weight.
These are light, lively rods that are fun to fish and are the standard light line rod for many anglers. They work well under a wide range of fishing conditions where delicacy is very important and, yet, they will still handle light breezes. With their progressive action they will easily cast a variety of small wet flies and small to medium dries.

A friend of ours wanted a longer 4-weight rod and asked if we would build him one.  We made a prototype 7 1/2' rod for him by extending our regular 7' 4-weight.  It turned out to be a terrific rod so we are adding it to our already popular 7'.

5-Weight.

This is a very smooth casting rod for fishing a variety of flies in small to medium sized waters. It has a good fishing range and will do well under moderately blustery conditions. This is a great rod to fish when you're not sure what conditions you might run into. With a long leader you have excellent delicacy, but with a shorter leader you can cast into a good breeze. A great rod that is fun and easy to fish.