Back in January of 2004, a local fly fishing magazine called "Fly Rodders" had a special issue on fly fishing handicrafts. One article was titled "Build your own bamboo fly rod in one week!"

I was never much interested in building the standard 6-strip bamboo rod. Too damned difficult! And you need a lot of special tools, but this guy was using a box cutter knife and krazy glue to make a real fly rod. It looked "do-able" and for some reason, I started "doing" it.

Now, five months later, it's finally finished (yeah, it took me a little longer than one week...). Here are some pics:

And here are some pictures of the flame-colored bamboo rod tube I made to hold it: