Making a bamboo fish pole

This is a simple fishing pole, not the classic bamboo flyrod. We used these when we were kids. Sometimes they were "store bought" a gas station/bait shop near the river. Other times we took string, hook, float, and pole and made our own.

Choosing a BambooPole

Take a bamboo pole about 3/4 inch or a little larger on the base, about 8 to 10 feet long. This should be a dry pole. The best choice is Golden Bamboo (P.aurea) This bamboo is often called "fish pole bamboo". It has lots of canes about the right diameter and length. The canes taper nicely and the base ends are very thickwalled. Best of all, the base of P.aurea has distorted nodes giving the butt end a natural handhold. This thickened end near the base combined with a tapering, flexible tip make this an ideal rod. It's easy to handle, and you can feel all the action.

Drying

My uncle used to take long, slender bamboo canes and attach a hook made of coat hanger wire on the base end and tie a brick onto the tip. He then hung them in tall pines and let the mdry. It didn't take long in the summertime and they did seem to be nice and straight. I like to take a green pole and run a torch over it. The waxes and oils come to the surface and can be wiped off. Another way to dry bamboo poles is tied up under the eaves of a house or garage. Just keep it somewhere dry and stored straight. When the bamboo pole you have is dry, ligtly sand it with fine sandpaper. Clean the bamboo and let dry. Coat with a couple of coats of spar varnish. It will last a long time if you keep it out of the weather.

Assemble

On the tip of the bamboo pole attach a piece of clear fishline just a few inces shorter than the pole. You can experiment with how thin you want the tip to be, about a quarter inch in diameter. You can cut off as much of the base end as you want to make the pole just the right size for a child, or leave it long for yourself. Tie on a hook and place a small split shot a few inches up from the hook. Attach a sliding float above that. We used these mostly to fish for bream along the river bank. You could set the bait exactly where you wanted and it. The water was fairly shallow and we could often see the fish. Other times we would paddle out to the mouth of the slough and fish in deeper water.