The following is an account of my experiences with a George Gehrke Bamboo rod, which was originally called the "Bastard Bamboo" rod. Unfortunately, I think that was an apt name--it concisely describes both the history of the rod and the way George is perceived by some members of the on-line fly fishing community--but I will refer to the rod as a "Gehrke rod" during this article because of the harshness of the original name.

Since I'm new to fly fishing, I had never actually owned (or even held) a bamboo fly rod. Sure, I've seen pictures of various bamboo rods in books, on eBay and at other places around the Web, but that's no substitute for owning one. Despite my lack of experience with bamboo, I know enough to know that you can buy a more durable, higher-performance graphite rod for less than $384 dollars . But even if you prefer the romantic tradition of bamboo, a quick search of past auctions on eBay will tell you that you can find a fairly nice vintage bamboo rod for less than that.

So why did I decide to buy a Gehrke rod? I'll admit that a good part of it was curiosity. Sure, I wanted to experience the thrill of catching fish with bamboo, but more than that I simply wanted to own a piece of ROFF (the Rec.Outdoors.Fishing.Fly newsgroup) history. I have thoroughly enjoyed lurking, listening, and learning from the extended family of ROFF contributors, and the Gehrke rod saga has been one heckuva big fued!

After hearing several others' experiences--some good, some bad--I wanted to see for myself what George had created. Love him or hate him, you have to admit that George's determination to create a bamboo rod production line is admirable. What has added to the intrigue is the fact that he has managed to anger and offend just about everyone on ROFF along the way.

Click here for Part II of the story...