If you haven’t fished with a bamboo fly rod, then you may be wondering what all the buzz is about. Isn’t bamboo old technology, something to hang on the wall and admire but they certainly can’t complete with today’s modern graphite rods, can they? Don’t you need special lines with bamboo? Aren’t they made for fly fishing snobs to impress their buddies? Besides aren’t bamboo rods too delicate, too heavy, too expensive, too slow, too, too, too…
I am sure you have heard these negative comments in addition to others and yet your mind keeps coming back to bamboo and you say to yourself there may be more to this. What do they know that I don’t? Give me a few minutes of your time and I hope to answer some of your questions.Let me say first that this is not a “bamboo is better than graphite or fiberglass” rant but a reasoned discussion on why bamboo should be part of your fly-fishing arsenal. Here are four reasons I fish with bamboo.
For the history and heritage
Modern fly-fishing has roots extending back centuries, but bamboo rods became popular in their own right in the late 1800s. 
Fishing with a fly rod, the way we know it today, started between 1790 and 1845. Many bamboo and wood species were used as a building material before and during that period, but bamboo soon became the popular and preferred material to use.
The story of the split cane fly rods starts just before the American Civil War. It is believed that in 1846 Samuel Phillipes, a gunsmith from Pennsylvania, made the first 6 strips designed tip from Calcutta Cane and that his son, Solon, built the first complete hexagon rod from split cane in 1859. From that time forward makers some famous and some not famous labored to bring forth their creations to the aficionados of the sport. For some, the history is reason enough to fish bamboo. It is like slipping on the cloak of our forefathers and stepping back in time to a simpler age.
For the aesthetics
Naturally, there’s the aesthetic appeal to bamboo as well. Split cane rods have an undeniable beauty and history. A well-made bamboo fly fishing rod merges history, art, sport and grace.
Whether your taste runs from the exotic to the traditional there 
is a rod to match your style. A bamboo rod is organic, hand crafted piece of art that that it comes alive in your hands. You experience a split cane rod through all your senses.
Walking down a forest trail with a bamboo rod bobbing ahead of you can release enough of the essence of the cane and glue to allow you to smell your rod. Many use the word “feel” to describe the action of a bamboo rod; Some, like me, go even further believing that the bamboo rod takes on the essence of its’ owner. I could pick my split cane rod out of a line-up of other equal length bamboo rods, even by the same maker. Could you do that with graphite?
For the craftsmanship
In this day and age of our throwaway society 
there are precious few things that can one can pass down through generations that capture and impart the significance of tradition, ancestry and life.
From the hands of the harvester who cuts the raw bamboo culms, to the maker who labors to create the rod, to the angler who instills the fishing history and passes it down to those that will come after you; the rod will touch and be touched by many hands and fins through its life. When you hold a bamboo fly rod in your hands remember that you are but only the current keeper.
For the state-of-the-art performance
Okay all this talk about history, beauty and aesthetics are all fine and good but what about performance for the serious angler?
For one – Bamboo rods outperform graphite for close water fishing!
A significant feature of a bamboo rod is its ability to self-load, created by 
the natural flex and weight of the rod. Generally speaking, split cane rods have greater mass than graphite. On one hand, this greater mass makes the rods heavier but on the other hand, it means you often don’t need to work so hard to deliver a fly a given distance, since the rod does more of the work.
The rod is going to flex and load with or without the line. This means that a split cane rod can be used to deliver a leader on its own, with no line at all through the guides. Roll-casting becomes a breeze. The tempo of fishing itself is slower, with a full of fluid motion which is an advantage, particularly for dry-fly fishing. Anglers all over the country are rediscovering slower bamboo rods for tight, technical casting and dense cover, when bamboo’s ability to load short becomes crucial.
That said, the deeper flex of a well-made bamboo rod employs natural power fibers running all the way into the grip of the rod, and this means that on the occasion when there is such a need, you can hit the far side of the stream too.
Accuracy, finesse and surprising power are the reasons to consider a split cane rod.
Check out Weymouth Bamboo Trout, Salmon and Spey rod models.