[fishnpreacher]

I started my fly fishing experience fishing for trout in the N.Ga mountains. I've traipsed many miles looking for 6 inch native brook trout, browns, and bows. I built a couple of rods, tied my own flies, and eventually digressed to bamboo rods for trout. I don't have an arsenal of bamboo fly rods, but I have some that are a bit heavy for trout (South Bend model 59, 9ft, 7wt) and I believe would handle light salt. I've read about fishing salt with bamboo fly rods, but was curious if anyone here had. There will be some extra maintenance cleaning and prepping, but I would like to get a few salt water fish on the fly.

 

[DuckNut]

Go for it. Be careful what your throwing at so you don't hook something dangerous to the rod, and clean it after you are done.

Keep in mind the glue used to hold your rod together is roughly 40 years old.

 

[ifsteve]

Can you do it? Sure

But should you is an entirely different question. Although breaking a South Bend bamboo probably isn't that big a deal.

 

[permitchaser]

Just cause you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[texasag07]

I have done it a good but with a southbend model 24 8 1/2’ which is similar to your 59.

When I marsh fished for redfish the rod worked good cause most shots were 30-50’ and the slow action let it load quick. Those rods are fairly slow and heavy so when the wind gets up it can be a bit tricky especially depending on your casting skill.

When I got the rod it needed a little work so I stripped it all the way to bare cane, re varnished and re wrapped the guides with saltwater safe hardware. I also removed the factory real seat and installed a new one with a small fighting butt.

When I live now the shots are a good bit further so I don’t use it near as much.

I did have a freak break where it actually snapped in the middle of the factory grip but this was just some issue with the cane probably when it was made as the rod was almost in unused condition. I regripped it and shortened it about 4” and it has fished without issue the last 5 years and caught a good number or redfish, trout, bass, gar and even a couple Bonita.

There are some guys building light and much faster( for bamboo) rods that are salt specific.

To keep it somewhat period correct and to balance the weight I used a pflueger medalist 1498. I added a later model rim control spool, and also cut out the back of the spool and added a leather patch to be able to palm the spool which was a modification I read about in a article from the 80’s by lefty Kreh.

I say go for it.

 

[TheAdamsProject]

Knock yourself out. Bill Oyster was just down in Ambergris catching tarpon on some of his bamboo rods. For 99.9% of guys, just do your best with graphite.

 

[sjrobin]

If you are looking for the same bamboo feel, try one of the Swift glass rods. Made for the salt and will last a life time. They look cool also.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iJ1uJjwJHVF8k

 

[numbskull]

Thomas and Thomas build a saltwater specific bamboo rod called the "Sextant".
At $3595 it would suck to drop a gas can on it, however.

 

[fishnpreacher]

Knock yourself out. Bill Oyster was just down in Ambergris catching tarpon on some of his bamboo rods. For 99.9% of guys, just do your best with graphite.

I know Bill, have been to his shop in Blue Ridge. No doubt he has caught plenty of salty fish on cane rods. True story...
I was at a bamboo rod gathering at a private cabin on the Toccoa river north of BlueRidge. Bill shows up with a brand new, just varnished the day before bamboo rod. He puts it together and accidentally sticks the tip in a ceiling fan while it was running. Talk about one of those "Oh crap!" moments! He inspects the rod to see what needs to be done to fix it, and there was zero damage. He did have some youtube videos of him stomping a rod blank, hitting it with a rubber hammer, just to show how tough they are.
I've used a 5wt bamboo rod on some "pay to play" trophy trout water and landed some 24-28 inch trout.