Early in the 1970's my fishing partner, Jim Chrisman, and I were convinced that we needed bamboo fly rods. Neither of us could afford any of the rods that were available, so we spent our weekend searching through garage sales in Paradise California looking for a great deal. We bought some nice rods, but none were made for the modern lines that were just starting to become available. All the rods we could afford were long and heavy.

We were both handy and each of us had a shop. We were determined to make our own rods. We had a short chapter in McClane's Standard Fishing Encyclopedia and Claude M. Kreider's book The Bamboo Rod and How to Build It to use as instructions. There were no dealers that sold bamboo rod making equipment as there is now, so we had to make our own planing forms and gluing machine.

In the mid 1970's a friend of mine took one of my rods to "Creative Sports," Andre Puyans' fly shop in Walnut Creek. Andre wanted to meet me. I took the only rod that was any good: a 7' 6'', 6 weight; and drove the three hours to his shop.

Ten years later I had made more that one hundred rods for Andy and had fished with him each year on the Henry's Fork at Last Chance Idaho. He introduced me to a lot of great fisherman some that I had only read about. Andy was my constant critic of manufacturing technique and finish, and he never quit encouraging me. He even tried to improve my casting. I will miss him.

I am still making rods.
Check my web page www.jlbadleybamboorods.com