Old vs New Fly Rod: Fly Fishing for Backcountry Trout!

Last summer one of my buddies told me that his grandfather had given him an old bamboo rod that he believed was made sometime in the 50’s or 60’s. He mentioned that at some point he wanted to catch a trout on the rod.. so almost a year later.. we decided to try and make that happen.

My buddy McKinley is a bass fisherman from North Carolina. His trout fishing experience is minimal and his fly fishing is not the most impressive thing you’ll see. Which is why I decided to take him on a hike down into the middle of nowhere to chase some native brook trout. Fishing these creeks usually doesn’t require any crazy casts and the fish see little pressure in comparison with most other rivers. In other words it was a perfect place to get on a fish using his grandpas old bamboo rod.

can tell you one thing for sure.. and it’s that I’m glad we’ve got our modern rods. I think even a poor quality modern rod is easier to cast and weighs a lot less than this rod did. I’m sure some purists or old timers may not like that opinion, and I’m not saying there aren’t upsides to the older bamboo rods… but my gosh that thing was so uncomfortable to fish for any decent period of time. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

This is fly fishing at it's finest! Brook Trout don't get any prettier than this! #troutfishing #flyfishing #brooktrout #outdoors #nature