A friend of ours stopped by for dinner today.  She lives with her family an hour NE of here on the Battenkill.  We exchanged overdue Christmas gifts; she pulled out a long linen covered stick and handed it to me.  I knew immediately that it was a rod (she used to work in the Orvis main office and knows I'm a fly fishing fiend).  Given that it was obviously ancient, I figured I'd find a low-grade wall hanger bamboo rod with disintegrated wraps and a finish in advanced stages of decomposition holding together delaminated strips of wood.





































 

It's beautiful. Any idea what it's worth?

It's not a high-end rod and the Duplex isn't a prized commodity.  Probably $125-150.

I love fishing bamboo. I was fortunate when I was young to have a fishing buddy who was a very active collector. Every time we went fishing he brought me a new rod to fish. Thanks to him I have been able to fish rods that cost more than most of my cars. I will always remember the feel of some of those rods.

In my income bracket the only quality bamboo I could afford was a Partridge. I fished that rod so hard that it has delaminated twice. It is now retired.

Fish that rod and enjoy every minute of it!

Nice, we will need a stream report, with pictures of course!

Well, I took it out into the yard today to find out what line it'll throw.  6wt loads the rod well.  Unfortunately, there's so much friction in the guides that it just won't shoot.  The guides are not visibly corroded, but I'm going to polish them and see if that helps.  They are tiny.  I'm a little skeptical if it'll work with a modern line (silk lines were much finer).