I'm getting anxious now. Tom Smithwick, who moved to Shippensburg several years ago, builds bamboo fly rods. A couple weeks ago, he found three bamboo rod blanks and offered to help me build out a fly ...

Central New York is full of die-hard, trout and salmon anglers who tie their own artificial flies. Ever consider making your own fly rod? Don’t be intimidated. It’s not as difficult or expensive as ...

FREMONT -- Wes Cooper won't be fishing today, the opening day of trout fishing season. He is more likely to be in his basement shop making bamboo fly rods. Cooper, 81, has built 245 such rods since he ...

ESKO -- When Phil Johnson was in college, making $3 an hour working summers at the paper mill in Cloquet, he saved enough to buy himself a bamboo fly rod. "I bought an Orvis Battenkill," says Johnson, ...

There are over 150 steps in making a bamboo fishing rod which involve nearly 60 hours of work to actually complete. That’s a lot of work. You can sneak a peak at how it gets done—the carving, the ...

AMHERST - Richard Taupier is a scholar and expert in Central Asian history at the University of Massachusetts, often traveling to places such as Mongolia or Russia for study. But, when you Google his ...

I had owed Jim Downes a visit since last June when I wrangled his little 7 ½-foot Garrison 206 away from him at PA Fly Fishing Heritage Day. That rod has a beautiful, smooth, full-flexing action very ...

LANESBORO, Minn. — Steve Sobieniak knew what a good fly fishing rod felt like. He developed a feel for the graceful casting tool, particularly ones made of bamboo. He could pick one up, hold it, test ...