Bamboo Lore Notes on Making, Wrapping, and Repairing Bamboo Fly Rods

In Bamboo Lore, Edwin Thomas Whiffen (1874 – 1957) was a prominent outdoor writer in the 1910s and 1920s who led a varied and fascinating life. A native New Yorker, he spent an active career as a teacher in New York City. A graduate of Syracuse University, he was also a notable playwright and poet, as well as an amateur herpetologist. He published widely in his lifetime. Whiffen was also an outdoor writer in the 1900-1920 period and prominent in the pages of Outing, Forest & Stream, Outdoor Life, and other popular sporting journals. His subjects were as eclectic as he was, ranging from a defense of the Carp as an American sport fish (one of the earliest such articles) as well as fly fishing for Adirondack Frost Fish, a species of whitefish now endangered of which almost no other outdoor writers took note. Whiffen was also a rodmaker, who taught many contemporary outdoorsmen how to build their own rod from scratch through his popular articles in the sporting press. A man not bound by tradition, his writings are unlike any other rodmaking writings out there, and are filled with fascinating tidbits of information gleaned on the stream. He was a major advocate of very light fly rods at a time when this was almost unheard of, as well as a proponent of one-piece rods as superior to jointed models. He was fishing a six foot fly rod of his own make in 1914! Reproduced with original illustrations, Whiffen’s rodmaking writings are collected here for the first time with an introduction by Dr. Todd E.A. Larson. They will hopefully rescue Whiffen from obscurity, and help inspire a few people to make their own rods in the classic method from scratch. This is the ninth volume in the Fly Angler’s Desktop Library.

To Purchase this book please visit our sister site Whitefish Press: Bamboo Lore

ABOUT THE FLY ANGLER’S DESKTOP LIBRARY

The Fly Angler’s Desktop Library is a return to the Golden Age of Books, when bigger was not necessarily better. It was a time when publishers like Borzoi Books lovingly crafted beautiful, compact volumes. Now, we can recapture the classic look and feel of these wonderful books in a new series dedicated to bringing out long forgotten treatises as well as new, original works on the art and beauty of fly angling. At a compact 4.5″ x 6.875″ size, these books are designed to be proudly displayed on the desktop, just like in the olden days. With learned and interesting introductions and appendices of additional materials, you won’t want to miss any of these little gems. Color coded hardcovers by subject. Red for rod making, fly tying and fly tackle; Blue for general fly angling; Green for history and biography.

Bamboo Lore

Bamboo Lore Title Page