We are all (well most of us) a bit guilty of following an old traditional fly tying/fishing style...... but jumping on the latest and greatest rod & reel band wagon........
And why not? Marketing advertisers are paid well to "bend" our train of thought. First it was glass and then graphite became the latest "space aged" improvement in the must have of fly rods. But which has had the longest practical life?
When did split cane rods become mainstream? I will take a stab and say around the 1880's. They remained the rod of choice until the 1950's when glass made a real push, not a total take over- but a real push into the fly rod market, but they also shared the shortest lifespan and were superseded by graphite perhaps 30 years later and bamboo became somewhat of a cottage industry.
Split cane and glass are making small inroads again now (in the World scene) and there are (have been) forays into carbon and boron rods...... but split cane has out lived them all.
Many 20lb+ fish were landed here in the NZ heyday of trout fishing on cane rods from Britain that were usually 9-11' long and rather "chunky", but many a user could cast 100' plus with such set-ups.
Think back to your fathers (grandfathers for the pups here) and cane was the only choice. Plenty of large trout and salmon were landed on cane rods- okay- the rods may have been longer and heavier than today's more usual #4 weight fine tipped dry fly cane rod- but they were still made from organic vegetation!
Bottom line, the flies designed hundreds of years ago- still work. Same with rod designs and manufacture. If you wanted to fish an old lancewood or greenheart rod for trout- guess what- you would catch fish. Might not be as comfortable as a more modern graphite rod, but it would work. Modern cane rods are way ahead of mass produced long heavy line weight cane rods of days past in regard to modern line weights, modern fishing and use of new stronger glues and materials, but both have a place.
Modern rods command a price- somewhat unfair to the maker believe it or not, when you look into just how many hours go into building one and the hand made aspect of a custom six strip rod. Vintage can be cheaper, but sometimes at the expense of weight, less refined finish and guides more suited to thinner silk lines.
All comes down to what you can afford and your own desires/wants/needs.
In regard to strength and tip breakage. You have to fish/treat bamboo a little differently. You have to learn to use the entire rod to play fish (especially larger fish) and not tip load the rod. Some like to alternate the bend of the rod whilst playing big fish by rotating the rod 180 deg in long fights. It pays to look after a cane rod a little more than we do with graphite, dry them down before storage as they can suffer from water damage if it gets inside the rod finish and rot can set in, but I have never (touch wood) broken a cane rod tip fighting a fish and I have caught the odd bigger fish on cane. I have had several graphite rods break under fish pressure over the years, but never cane.
If one was to break, it can be repaired. Some makers can repair a rod section to a point the repair is hard to find with the naked eye..... but you pay for such work and often that will be more than the rod is worth if you were talking mass produced factory rods from last century. New sections can be made, short sections spliced in, sections repaired or glue up a split- wrap it in white thread and varnish over...... basically any damage is recoverable.
Now, having said all that. I have a beautiful 6' 6" 2/2 rod made for me by Boris Gaspar, that I only use with single dry flies or single small unweighted nymphs and soft hackles, with short line casts to selected sighted fish that are of a size I think will challenge the rod- but not overstrain it!
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