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You can make a rod's action "slower" by overlining the rod with a fly line rated one size higher. Overlining rods often helps beginners get a better feel for when a rod loads and can also help experienced anglers throw oversized flies.
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| MidCurrent Guide to Choosing Fly Rods | Choosing Cane: Buying a Bamboo Fly Rod | Longer Fly Rods: "Walking Sticks" | Spey Rods: Speywatch |
| How Modern Fly Rods Are Made | For the Love of Bamboo |
Fly Fishing Rods: Bamboo
How to Select a Bamboo Fly Rod 
WRITERS AND ENTHUSIASTS have been so busy describing the recent "resurgence" of bamboo in the fly-fishing world, it's easy to forget that cane rods never actually
went away. The truth is, there is no more versatile rod-building material than bamboo, which is why it's been so successful. The stuff's been ripped, planed, and glued together into fly rods since at least the late 1800s, when Hiram Leonard popularized the idea of using a six-strip, all-cane fishing rod. Today, there are more kinds of bamboo rods out there than all the other types put together.
For nearly a century, a fisherman using cane could be confident his rod was made from the best material available. Millions of fish fell victim to the allure of the soft presentations made by the supple, tippet-protecting grass. Generations of anglers did quite well, thank you, with these tools, and nothing about that equation has changed. A bamboo rod can still be a wonderful fishing tool, and there are lots of good reasons to own one. The only problem is, there are about as many styles of bamboo rods as there are makers of bamboo rods (read: a whole lot).
Fly Fishing rods: Long Rods
Walking Sticks: Longer Fly Rods for Saltwater
WHENEVER THE PROSPECT exists for stalking bonefish in really calm or super shallow water, I pack a 9½-foot, 6-weight rod. On some trips, the longer stick never sees the light of day, but when the conditions make for spooky fish that require soft presentations and long leaders, nothing else will do.
Such was the case a few years ago when I fished with a friend for bonefish and permit in Roatan, a small island of Honduras. The first two days we cast to bones swimming in about a foot of water, but we were not finding many fish.
On the third day, a local guide took us to a remote area many miles overland and a 20-minute skiff ride away. This new fishery greeted us with ideal conditions, and bones tailing here and there. Despite a medium incoming tide, the water level on these large, outside flats seemed low — and the fish were spooky. The sound of the pole on the hard coral bottom didn't help, either. So we took out our 8weights and decided to wade.
