Turns out I've done a lot of thinking on this topic lately (been spending lots of time on the road). In fact, I was going to post a similar thread.
Here's what I came up with on the subject:
"In my experience, bamboo rod fishers seem to fall into three general categories. The first think bamboo is superior to graphite and fiberglass, usually because it has special properties that make it ideally suited for fly rods, properties which synthetic materials have so far only been able to approximate. I think this view used to be a lot more common than it is now.
The second view is that bamboo and graphite (and glass) are just different, that each has advantages and disadvantages, and that the individual just happens to prefer the feel of bamboo. This seems to be the most common view.
The third group pretty much admits that synthetic materials are superior to bamboo in all objective measures - modulus of elasticity, strength-to-weight ratio, or whatever - and that this means you can build a better "performing" rod out of them, regardless of how you define that term. But they fish bamboo rods because they love the feel of them, the rods are still fantastic fishing tools, they like using hand-crafted stuff made out of wood, and they think "performance" is generally over-rated in the modern world. This makes them roughly analogous to people who hunt with muzzleloaders or traditional bows, or people who drive antique cars.
For my part, I find myself waffling between #2 and #3."
Judging from the responses, it looks like I've got lots of company.
"In my experience, bamboo rod fishers seem to fall into three general categories. The first think bamboo is superior to graphite and fiberglass, usually because it has special properties that make it ideally suited for fly rods, properties which synthetic materials have so far only been able to approximate. I think this view used to be a lot more common than it is now.
The second view is that bamboo and graphite (and glass) are just different, that each has advantages and disadvantages, and that the individual just happens to prefer the feel of bamboo. This seems to be the most common view.
The third group pretty much admits that synthetic materials are superior to bamboo in all objective measures - modulus of elasticity, strength-to-weight ratio, or whatever - and that this means you can build a better "performing" rod out of them, regardless of how you define that term. But they fish bamboo rods because they love the feel of them, the rods are still fantastic fishing tools, they like using hand-crafted stuff made out of wood, and they think "performance" is generally over-rated in the modern world. This makes them roughly analogous to people who hunt with muzzleloaders or traditional bows, or people who drive antique cars.
For my part, I find myself waffling between #2 and #3."
Judging from the responses, it looks like I've got lots of company.
Andy
