Trout Grass - the documentary

[princecoppahdroppah]

If you haven't seen this short film yet I highly recommend it you check it out. I saw it at the local independent movie joint up here last March and was smart enough to buy a copy. It felt good to support the guys who made it and it has helped me fight off withdrawal pains a few times. The basic premise is following bamboo from the hills of China (where Tonkin cane originates), to a rod builder in Montana, to end user. If you can watch this and not start asking yourself why you don't have a bamboo rod in your quiver I'd be amazed. Well done all around and some good fishing action at the end.

Here is the website-
http://www.troutgrass.com/

They also have it available at Netflix.

P.S. - I know this is the literature section;)

[Andrew]

I heard about this, but then forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder - I'll see if I can get my wife to bump it onto the Netflix list (right after "Elizabeth", and "The Queen", and "Elizabeth II", and ....)

[princecoppahdroppah]

FYI - Elizabeth II is junk!:><:

I actually enjoyed the first one, but that second one was tough to sit through and I can sit through almost anything. I need to take up fly tying or something. I watched more movies this past winter. I managed to watch all six plus seasons of Sopranos in under 3 months time. That is alot of tying time...

Maybe employ a well timed foot rub to see if you can get "Trout Grass" into the lineup, it's worth it.

[The Fisherman]

I thought the acting was good, but the story was terrible. And the title was all wrong. "Elizabeth: The Golden (?!?) Years." Say what? How about: "Elizabeth: The Mary Wants My Crown and Spain Is Trying To Murder Me Years."

[princecoppahdroppah]

The whole " Elizabeth standing on a gnarly precipice with windblown robes while angels sing in the background" thing was way over played. Geoffry Rush plays a great role in both the films. That guy knows his way around a torture chamber.

[fairfish]

I think that Trout Grass could have been a very good film, but is in fact an extended commercial for the producer/bamboo importer Andy Royer. The writing strikes me as embarrassing. It's pretty much third rate River Runs Through It stuff. My overall reaction was that there was a potentially great film to be made about the people who harvest the bamboo, which unfortunately never happened.

[princecoppahdroppah]

Not sure what to do with that, but you are entitled to your opinion. I learned a lot from it. I've never been to that particular region of China. I've never seen someone make a bamboo fly rod. The Montana fishing scenes don't blow my mind, but I wouldn't mind being there right now.

I guess I prefer to look at the river as half full.;)

[Todd K]

Good call. I changed the name of the forum to add film reviews. I haven't seen the film yet but am interested.

[Catch 22]

As a confirmed bamboo addict, I bought TroutGrass right after it came out. My opinion falls somewhere between those of pcd and fairfish. While I don't think it quite qualifies as an embarrassment, the writing and therefore the narration is pretty sappy. If you like listening to Flip Pallot's schtick, you'll like the narration of this documentary. As a side note, the writer and narrator, David James Duncan, is the writer of The River Why, a strange, but excellent book in it's own quirky way.

Fairfish, this movie wasn't intended to be about the people who harvest the bamboo. It was intended to be about the material, it's evolution from plant to fly rod, and why so many people still love the stuff for fly rods. I thought it could have gone into a lot more depth in several places, but as for the people, that might be a good subject for a different movie.

Jeff

[Adam Taylor]

it sure as heck beats watching 90% of the nonsense on TV now.
Anything highlighting Glenn Brackett I like to see. Interesting 45 minutes..there are a lot of worse ways to spend an hour in the winter.

sidenote...watch Axmen on the history channel if you get a chance.

HOLY CRAP :eek: No way in the world I would ever be a logger.

[princecoppahdroppah]

I was too blown away at how cool it looked to make a bamboo flyrod to care that the narration was a bit on the schmarmy side. I have an old Bristol (I think) that is in serious need of refurbishing. One of these days I'll get to it. Has anyone ever built a bamboo rod at home. The shop in the film looked pretty well equipped. Can it be done on a smaller scale? Any good books on the subject to recommend?

I didn't know that Duncan was involved in that film. I've read "The River Why" twice, good book. A bit on the spiritual side, but I found it to be a good page turner. plus it's about being obsessed with fishing. The main character in the book goes all uni-bomber and moves up into a cabin in the woods right near a quality Pacific northwest steelhead river. He goes up there with the intention of living life by his "ideal schedule", ie fishing every waking hour. I know when my life gets funky I yearn to do the same. Another decent book by Duncan is "the Brothers K". No fishing in that one, but if you like "The River Why" it's worth a try

[Catch 22]

Has anyone ever built a bamboo rod at home. The shop in the film looked pretty well equipped. Can it be done on a smaller scale? Any good books on the subject to recommend?

Pvansch1 is the guy for that. I'll direct him here. He can help you a lot more than I can even hope to.

Jeff

[pvansch1]

I build bamboo rods from the culm up, I also build on others blanks. I don't have a "shop", I use a small area in my garage that consists of an old section of a kitchen cabinet and a board long enough to support my forms.
No power tools involved. I split out the culm by hand with a knife. Remove the nodal areas with a file and a Stanley 9.5 plane. Square up the edges. I use a heat gun to heat the bamboo for straightening. Once straight I go back to the Stanley plane and plane the rough taper.
For heat treating I use either the Collinsville Baking Co oven or a pizza oven at the school I work at.
My final planing forms are made of wood with push / pull bolts for adjusting the taper. Gluing and binding is done by hand, just haven't gotten around to making a binder, Gorilla Glue works fine, but very messy. Once the glue is past the sticky point I start scraping of the excess. I give the blank a few more hours of drying before continuing to work.
I buy my components from Either Golden Witch (Reel seats, cork and guides) or Rush River Rods (ferrules).

Pete

[princecoppahdroppah]

Interesting...
I was wondering how the heat treating could happen without having a specialized oven. Even still, a 9' rod fits in these ovens? Or are you building shorter (7'-8') 1/2/3 weight rods? The whole process fascinates me to say the least. Are there any books you would recommend on the subject?

Also, do you make rods only for yourself or do you sell them as well? Wondering if there is the potential for a small cottage industry. Makes it easier to sell the initial investment to the wife.

Thanks for giving me the quick and dirty rundown on how you make your rods, I would like to get a look at one someday.:D

[pvansch1]

Most rods are multiple pieces. A 9' 3/2 rod has 4 36" sections maybe 40" before they are cut to length. Shorter rods fit most large industrial ovens. Many of the larger pizza ovens will do that.
Now, at the bakery, she has and oven that is about 9' deep and 6' wide with 4 racks in it. So I could do a long one piece, but that's not going to happen, a ***** to plane it would be!!
As far as "home grown" ovens go, many rod makers make their own, can be as simple as a couple of lengths of stoce wrapped and insulated and the heated by a heat gun, believe it or not that will maintain a temp around 375*, for heat treating bamboo you need about 350*, other get more elaborate with mica strip ovens.
There are a couple of great books, "Fundamentals of Build a Bamboo fly Rod" by George Mauer and Bernard Elser and "Handcrafting Bamboo Fly Rods" by Wayne Cattanach. Other books are available, these two go from tooling to completing a rod.
The rods I have made are for my own use except for a matched pair I made for my wifes school advisor.
The rods are;
1 - 7' 2/1 4wt Based on a Wayne Cattanch taper
1 -6'3" 2/2 4wt Cattanach taper
2 - 7.5' 2/ from the Mauer book (given away)
1 - 7.5' 3/1 4wt my own taper
Plus plenty of blank that have been scrapped as they weren't worthy of completing.
I have built out a couple blanks from a west coast maker. Dennis Stone.

The most expensive tool will be the final planing forms. The can be homemade, but from steal a tough job, or a very hard wood like maple or oak.

Take a look at this web site if you have more interest in ganing information on bamboo fly rods. http://clarksclassicflyrodforum.yuku.com/

[princecoppahdroppah]

Great, thanks for all the info.

MV