There is no doubt that the best fly fishing rod material is good bamboo properly selected, cured, split, glued, and correctly proportioned. It possesses strength combined with lightness, resiliency, pliancy, power and balance in greater degree than either steel or solid woods.

There are a couple of kinds of bamboo canes that rod makers are using these days, they are male and female, and they are either Tonkin or Calcutta. But as of now Calcutta is becoming a lot harder to come by then it was in the past. Therefore a good amount of the bamboo fly fishing rods that are made, are constructed using a good piece of Tonkin cane.

Out of all the types of bamboo that are used to make a fly rod, it is said that the male Calcutta cane is the best. If you can not afford the best, then you could get a fly rod that is made from African cane. These kinds of bamboo fly rods are great and you will not go broke trying to buy one.

When a bamboo rod is being put together, the bamboo is split into sections and then it is glued together. The sections of bamboo will be split into either 6 or 8 sections. You will see that the 6 split section is more common than the 8 split section though.

Some makers claim that the eight strip, being more nearly a true cylinder, possesses better action but this seems to be more theoretical than practical, while the tiny tips of an eight strip rod are likely to be soft due to the comparative amount of glue necessary to hold the pieces together.

So we already know that if you are going after an 8 strip section fly rod that you will be paying more money, and it is not guaranteed it will hold up better than a six. Your best bet would be to stick with the six unless you have your heart set on the eight strip rod.

When a bamboo fly rod is made, it is made in two layers. One is in the middle and of course there is an outer layer also. This is also known as a double built rod, making them much more stronger than your tradition fly fishing rod.

An English innovation is the steel center rod which consists of a fine piece of well-tempered steel running as a core through sections of regular split bamboo. The makers claim this construction gives a rod of superior casting power with only of an ounce added weight. Friends who possess rods of this kind are enthusiastic admirers of this construction for heavy fishing.

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