The Way of an Angler
… Rodger Muir
Nick is very kind in his description of me as one of his ‘star pupils’ of the 2025 Cressy Cane Rod Making course. Indeed, I did come away from the course with a beautiful cane rod, very much a tribute to Nick and his approach to tuition and guidance over the five days of the course, and also the companionship, camaraderie and encouragement from fellow course participants, engendered by the ‘live-in’ environment at Cressy. I am still corresponding and sharing experiences with my classmates, and we are all planning on ‘doing it again’ by building another rod with Nick at Cressy in April 2026.
Perhaps the easiest way to explain why the rod building class was such a great experience for me is to relate it to the incremental personal investment and confidence that accrued over the process, from splitting and cutting an anonymous culm of bamboo through the various processes, to being able to hold the finished rod blank. Because of the sequential and structured way Nick runs the class, with each phase my personal investment in ‘my rod’ accumulated in a way that meant I was intent on building the best rod I could, and Nick’s easy and positive guidance provided the confidence that with application, this was achievable.
As I say above, I left Nick’s class with a beautiful cane rod blank – sans line guides. To be able to walk away with a rod ready to be fished with the class would need to be at least two weeks long. Tuition and practice at preparing line guides and tying wraps is given during the class, but the mounting of the line guides and varnishing of the wraps is ‘homework’ to be completed after the class. The silk wrapping is time consuming (particularly for beginners), and the coats of varnish need time to dry, etc. But when done, you have a complete (beautiful) rod – ready to go fishing with. And as the idiom goes, the proof is in the pudding.
I was fortunate to be able to head to Waitahanui on the shores of Lake Taupo, New Zealand, to complete my ‘homework’, and by the end of the first week of May I was able to rig up my rod and test it out on the fresh-run rainbows of the Waitahanui River. I opted for a 6-weight wet line, adopting the ‘across and down’ swing style of fishing. It took a little time to adjust to the different ‘feel’ of bamboo (the slower action), but the Para 15 handled the heavy line with ease, with both overhead casting and roll casting.
Given all the time and effort I’d put into the rod I was pretty nervous, having not previously fished a cane rod and having no idea of its capability as compared to the more familiar composite rods. The first fish I connected with was a 4lb hen in excellent condition, and the ensuing battle had all the characteristic features of playing a good fish – sustained runs and splashy acrobatics. I was very conservative in applying pressure to bring it to the net, but once achieved I realised the rod was extremely capable, providing me with a boost of confidence in the rod.
Over the next three weeks I fished with the Para 15 most days, including a successful day casting heavy nymphs on the Tongariro. With each fish hooked my respect for the inherent capabilities of bamboo rods increased, as did my confidence in fishing with the Para 15. I landed over a dozen fish in that time, the largest being a 5.4 lb rainbow jack, which in fast flowing water took 15 minutes to land.
Once I had landed it I realised the rod had a bend in the tip section from the sustained pressure. I then recalled that Nick had advised that a strategy to overcome the tendency of bamboo to take on a bend under stress was to turn the rod over occasionally while playing a fish. So, that’s what I did. I carried on fishing, and on the next fish I hooked I turned the rod over and played it. That took a little to adapt to – winding with the ‘wrong’ hand, and ‘backwards’, but it worked a treat – the rod came out of that pretty much straight again. Amazing material.
Looking back I realise that toward the end of that period I was not really conscious that I was fishing with a bamboo rod as distinct from a composite rod. I was just having a ball fishing, and with an excellent, capable rod that I had built.
While I may have simply continued to enjoy fishing with the Para 15 and perhaps built a matching ‘dry fly’ tip in Nick’s class next year, the outcome for me has been that I have succumbed to the magic of bamboo, and am resolved to build more cane rods. I have started to acquire the equipment needed (block plane, planing forms, sharpening stones, honing guide, etc) and hope to be able to ‘put plane to bamboo’ a little later this year when I get back to Waitahanui.
From these paragraphs you can probably deduce that I have thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to both making a bamboo rod and fishing with it. For me, Nick’s class made that possible. If you have an interest in either or both, I strongly recommend you enrol.
Rodger Muir