BLUE RIDGE, GEORGIA, IS NOT exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think of bamboo fly rods. And yet, for bamboo aficionados, the small mountain town may soon be on par with places such as the Catskills of New York or Twin Bridges, Montana. This is the dream of Bill Oyster, a self-taught bamboo rod builder who has single-handedly created a new niche business: a living, breathing bamboo fly-rod factory and school.
With the help of a loan from the Georgia Cities Foundation, Oyster recently purchased a disused lot on Blue Ridge's picturesque 19"-century Main Street, right next to the town's postcard-worthy fly shop. His plan is to construct a three-story bamboo fly rod factory-and-inn, where he will expand his already thriving bamboo-rod building classes, as well as up his own production.
"I appreciate the guys who have a years-long waiting list for one of their bamboo rods, but my goal is to get far enough ahead of my orders that I actually have completed rods to sell," says Oyster. To that end he recently hired a full-time apprentice, and if his new cane-rod center is successful, he may consider adding even more hands.
"But a big part of our expansion is the school," he explains. "We'll have living quarters upstairs priced at reasonable rates." Blue Ridge's town fathers couldn't be happier, noting that many of the Oyster Bamboo students are CEOs and corporate bigwigs, just the kinds of guests a resort town covets. Others, Oyster explains, "are just hard-core fishermen who have done it all and want a chance to build their own rods, too."
The vision of both Oyster and the town is that the expanded school, inn, and factory make Blue Ridge a must-visit destination for bamboo fans. "When they leave my school with their rod, that rod is like a business card," Oyster explains, "and so I make sure they re taking away a quality fishing tool." But learning when not to insist on perfection has been equally important: "You can suck all the fun out of the room real quick if you aren't care-ful. I've been doing this several years now, and I think I've found that balance."
By Zach Matthews