For those who may not have read my prior blog posts on how I came to prefering very light short bamboo fly rods to all others I will briefly recap now by taking you through the steps:
1) Learn how to fly cast and fish with an 8 or 9 foot graphite or fiberglass fly rod. I my case it was an 8 foot for 8 weight Fenwick.
2) After a few years of fishing for Atlantic salmon and reading about Lee Wulff's exploits I began to reduce the weight of my fly rods. My favorite for many years was a 9' 6 weight Sage. There is something almost magical about casting a light weight fly rod. It takes so little effort to throw a long straight line. And I discovered that I could play big strong fish on this rod simply by getting the butt of the rod into the action once the fish began to tire.
3) More years passed and many more fish were brought to hand. It was getting to the point that it was almost too easy -- I needed a challenge. So I started using my 7 1/5 foot 5 weight Orvis trout rod for Atlantics. Now I had found a rod size that was testing my fishing skill but it was by no means even close to the lightweight bamboo rods that Lee was using. I wanted to duplicate his achievements.
4) I think it was shortly after we bought the Dungarvon salmon camp -- so late 80's early 90's that I picked up a little 6 foot bamboo blank from Jim Bender at The Lower Forty fly shop. I wrapped guides on it, mounted the reel seat and grip and started fishing for salmon in front of our camp. Back then we had good runs of grilse in July and caught fish pretty much every day. It didn't take long. I knew every lie in the pool. The fish took a hitched black bear hair and screamed down stream jumping as he went. I played him and landed him and I released him. In those days we killed a fish or two to eat but I wanted that first fish on that little bamboo fly rod to go free. I never landed a big salmon on that little rod but I had a lot fun landing grilse on it until one day I put a little too much bend in it and it snapped.
5) When I started making my own split cane rods, I immediately gravitated towards the small and light variety. The biggest rod I made in those first few years was an 8 foot 8 weight. Most were 7 or 7 1/2 feet for 4 and 5 weight lines. Then I decided to try to catch a big salmon on a 6 footer. I called the rod that I made, the "L.W. Salmon." It was a 6' 3" 8 weight. That fall we went up and didn't fish much. No one was fishing Quarryville because there weren't many fish around. One day, just for the fun of being in the woods I took my old CJ5 up to Soldier's Pool, walked in through the wood and across a beaver dam to the river at the upper pool. As I walked out to the river I spooked a moose. Raven chased it and it stumbled up the river bank and out of sight. We crossed there, walked down stream, crossed back, walked past the middle pool, crossed again and started fishing the lower pool. About half way down I hooked a fish and knew it was a large salmon. I started my cell phone video and put it in my shirt pocket. I got one good jump on video then the phone fell and that was that. It was a great fish, a great fight, and I will never forget it. I edited a short video and posted it on YouTube:
6) I was never a big bamboo guy, but once I started making them I also began reading about them and became fascinated with Midges and Banties as made by the famous rod makers -- Orvis, Hardy, Leonard, Payne, and Young. Some people think that a Banty is just the mid and tip section of a 9' salmon rod. with a grip and reel seat glued onto the mid section but I've tried that years ago and it doesn't make for a very good fly rod. The little 4' 4" Banty was a specialty rod.This description is from the Classic Fly Rod Forum (sorry I don’t know who wrote this history):
" …(early 60's) Arnold Gingrich and cohorts promoted a small, 4'4" rod NAMED the "BANTY". Hardy built them (4'4") called the Phantom Hallokona and made some of the same exclusively for A&F labelled "Banty". Orvis joined in the game with their 4'4" rod named the "Banty" and sold it exclusively through agreement with A&F. Jim Payne made a 4'4" model named "Banty", also sold through A&F. AJ Thramer has tweaked the Payne Banty and developed his own 4'4" Banty for a#4 line, now sometimes called the "Thramer 444" as opposed to "Banty" but it's lineage is clear. And so, the time was when a gentleman fished a "Banty" fly rod, he was fishing a specific model that was 4'4" long and cast a # 4 or #5 line. As such these were serious, though specialized rods and came into their own on small, brush-choked streams. Pinpoint accuracy was one of their noted benefits but the short rod made the fish close to the angler's hand throughout the take, fighting and landing and made for an intense, extremely interactive experience with the fish. I am afraid an entire generation of fly fishers has grown up now unaware of these wonderful little "niche" rods and just how capable and fun they are to fish. Today, the term "banty" has become generic for those rods somewhat shorter than "midge" rods. But it's kind of fun knowing the originals were specific 4'4" rods for some pretty specific reasons and developed a serious, if small following. …..Why 4'4"? There's a whole story in itself surrounding that. Pick up some of Arnold Gingrich's books, most particularly the, "TOYS of a Lifetime" title and enjoy reading about the history of these diminutive little rods. …. They're coveted by their owners and seldom come to the secondary market."
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