With a quick search online, you can find guides and classes for just about any outdoor activity. You can learn how to mountain bike, rock climb, roll a kayak, or fish for trout from masters of the sport.
But these instructors take it a step further, teaching you to how to construct the gear you need to get outside and start playing by hand.
Craft a Fishing Rod
There is a long and storied history of fly fishing in the Southeast, from the world class trout streams to saltwater and warm water destinations. It is here, in the heart of Blue Ridge, Georgia, where the Oysters set up their bamboo fly rod shop.
For more than 20 years, Bill Oyster has been crafting some of the finest fly fishing rods by hand. Anglers from all over the world, including former President Jimmy Carter, commission Oyster to make unique rods with his signature engravings. If he is the craftsman, then his partner Shannen Oyster is the driving force behind the business, handling all of the details that come with running and marketing a small business.
With his six-day bamboo fly rod making class, Oyster invites students to enter his world and craft a rod of their own.
“We have some people who are extremely experienced, we have people that have made some rods and want to learn how to make them better,” Oyster said. “And then we have people who literally have no interest in fly fishing, have never done it in their life. They are coming because of the traditional craft of it. They like the idea of making things.”
“I Thought maybe the only thing cooler than buying one would be if could make it myself.”
Growing up in Wyoming, Oyster remembers seeing fly anglers on the water, but it was not until he moved to the South that he really took an interest in fly fishing.
“At about 19 years old, I discovered the North Georgia Mountains,” Oyster said. “That’s where I was really intrigued by fly fishing again, those crystal-clear trout streams. I just fell in love with it. At the time, I was a professional bicycle racer and fly fishing was my noncompetitive, non-painful, just relaxing, enjoyable thing. I eventually had a bad crash on the road, and it took me out of racing. So, I put all of my passion, time, and energy into fly fishing.”
As a studio art major at the University of Georgia, Oyster was always into making things.
“I got intrigued by the idea of the bamboo rods because I love the classic, handmade things and the whole craftsmanship of it,” he said. “I thought maybe the only thing cooler than buying one would be if I could make it myself.”
At the time, there were no rod making classes and other masters of the craft refused to share their information with Oyster.
“I started playing with it, reading and research, trial and error, and studying the old ways that things were done,” he said. “Little by little, I started to figure it out.”
It is with that knowledge and understanding that Oyster approaches each class. Students go through the process of splitting a bamboo stalk, crafting the shaft, shaping the grip, and applying all of the hardware and varnish. At the end of the week, they leave with a fully functional and ready to use rod.
“Somebody could make a rod for high mountain Appalachian brook trout, so they’ll make a little bitty two weight or something like that,” Oyster said. “Then we’ll have guys come in and build a 12 weight that they’re catching 150-pound tarpon in the Florida Keys. From a functional standpoint, they get to make all of those decisions so they can handle any variety of fishing situations and make the rod to suit.”
Kathy Luker and her husband been have been fly fishing around the country for 25 years. After meeting the Oysters at an outdoor event, the Lukers decided to sign up for a class together.
“I loved it, my husband hated it,” Kathy Luker said. “If I could do it full time, I would.”
In March, Luker attended her fourteenth class, although she leaves her husband at home now. Over the years, she has kept some of the rods for herself but has gifted several of them to her children and close friends.
“I enjoy the physical work of making the rod from raw bamboo and you end up with the finished fly rod,” she said. “I’ve come to appreciate the bamboo itself, where the bamboo came from, and how through our skills, we are able to work with the bamboo and make it something very beautiful. When you take that piece of art out on a river, stream, or in the ocean and you use it, it brings life to that rod. It comes full circle.”
In the age of mass marketed goods, these rods stand out for their craftsmanship. “The bamboo rod is not as high tech or lightweight as the newer rods, but they’re much more durable,” Oyster said. “These rods are made to last your lifetime and then be passed on after that.”
Every student walks away with one of those rods and the knowledge that they shaped it with their own hands.
“We’ve never had a single student fail to complete the rod in the 20 years of classes,” Oyster said. “We have a running streak here that we don’t intend to break.”