Although the majority of fly fishing rods at the time of Walton's time were made of long sticks or branches, it is known that during the 17th century, there were individuals who designed fishing rods and came up ingenious ways of hollow out the wood to be able to reduce weight. They also used ferrule systems to join the wooden pieces to develop rods of a preferred action. Often, different types of wood is used and joined together depending on the action the rod maker wanted.

Greenheart was a common wood that fly fishing rods were made from and although we quite often associate split cane using classic antique rods, the Hardy Brothers company continued to produce rods for fly fishing from greenheart before the 1960's.

In the 18th century throughout Europe, bamboo became the material of preference for dappling flies because of its light weight. We don't know for sure who was the first to try splitting cane for the purposes of constructing fly rods, but in 1845, Samuel Phillipe, an American violin company did construct one using split cane. From that, the split cane rod craft was born and many American fishermen began perfecting the approach, developing new tapers and inventing ferrule systems to become listed on rod sections together. The first split cane rods were of an 3 and 4 strip construction, and it hasn't been until some years later that more common 6 strip rods were built. Hiram Leonard, who founded the still active H. L. Leonard Rod Company, is often given credit for any first 6 strip fishing rods, however, others believe it was eventually Charles Murphy of Nj, a friend of Phillipe, who originated the reasoning behind.

During your 19th century, fly fishing became a very popular sport with that advances rod builders have been making in splitting walking stick and developing tapers using beveling machines that will plane the bamboo to very thin and fine tolerances. Several companies which include Hardy Brothers, South Bend and Montague were created to benefit from this growing popularity.

Split cane continued to be the material of choice for fly sportfishing rods through the early part of the 20th century. Fiberglass and resins were known in the turn of the 20th century, but it was not until 1946 when a military researcher, Dr. Howald, broke his split cane rod and thought to repair it with a fibreglass tube that this was thought that fiberglass might be a good material for fishing rod blanks.

The first commercial fiberglass rods were manufactured by The Shakespeare company, and the process they used was named after Dr. Howald : the "Howald Process. " It differed from more modern fibreglass blank construction in the fiberglass yarn, saturated with resin, was wound in the spiral direction around a steel mandrel. Over that, strands of more wool, aligned with the axis in the mandrel were placed. The blank was then finished with wraps of cellophane tape to hold on to the fibers in place as being the resin cured, then later removed.

Advances with fiberglass rod construction stayed made and eventually, these advancements meant it was possible for fishing rods to remain manufactured with relatively inexpensive costs, making fishing rods more readily available to more people who used the sport. Split cane became less popular for several reasons but continued to be made (and continue right now) by craftsman that enjoy making them with regard to anglers who still enjoy using this material for the unique actions that will be imparted. shakespeare fly rod, shakespeare fly rod