Bamboo Rod Fair returns to Camp Sherman

Roger White, owner of the Camp Sherman Store, is bringing back his Metolius River Fly Fishing & Bamboo Rod Fair for the seventh year running.

Expect to see 30 rod makers at the event. The big tent will be set up between Chapel of the Pines and the Black Butte School. The action starts at 10 a.m. on both Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20. It ends at approximately 5 p.m. the first day and 3 p.m. the second. Saturday there will also be a barbecue at the Camp Sherman Store from 5 to 9 p.m.

The store is catering the food this year with both breakfast and lunch specials.

Scott Rods, Wulff Rods, Cortland, Hardy and Tica are among the graphite and bamboo rod makers who will be at the event. Look for The Federation of Fly Tiers, led by Mike Marchando, who will be back showing off their technique. You will hear many a great fish tale from this group.

This year there will be several new artists at the event, as well as more factory reps, speakers and demos.

The Camp Sherman Store even carries very soft shirts made with bamboo fiber.

John Judy will be doing demos out at the casting pond, giving talks, and will be available for book signing. Plan to test rods on the water.

Roger Fairfield will be demonstrating how to make rods; starting with a 12-foot-long piece of bamboo, heat treating, splitting it into strips, sanding out the nodes, and possibly straightening. He will use the Morgan hand mill during his demo.

It is a painstaking process. One misstep and all the hours of work are for naught, he says. He has been making graphite rods for 40 years, bamboo rods for 12. Fairfield has also been an instructor for five years for the "Becoming an Outdoor Woman" program.

Camp Sherman's own outdoor woman, Laurie Adams, will be at the show talking shop.

Dave Holloman of E.F. Payne Rod Company will be under the big tent with rods and products. Started in 1870, E.F. Payne is the last remaining bamboo rod company from that golden age that is still in existence. Holloman is the senior rod maker and uses machinery and lathes from the turn of the century.

Jason Borger will be doing casting demos, book signing and offering a casting clinic. Borger was the shadow-caster standing in for Brad Pitt in the movie "A River Runs Through It." He will be talking to both kids and adults. Borger is a writer of books and magazines, an illustrator of his father's fly fishing books, and himself wrote "Nature of Fly Casting."

Borger also focuses on the "medicine" of fly fishing. Injuries that are the result of technique problems, or pre-existing injuries that require a flycasting adjustment.

Sunday is a great day to bring the kids. The challenge from last year is whether or not there will be more boys than girls this year. Last year the girls won out.

Kids will learn to cast and to tie flies. Chris Foster, ODFW volunteer for Angler Education, will be teaching casting to all ages, experienced or not. Expect to see Captain Cadis, aka Bob Mullong, another Central Oregon ODFW volunteer for Angler Ed.

Take a free lesson and the kids will get a free raffle ticket. Three groups are donating outfits to the winners: Temple Forks Outfitters (who also donated last year) is donating one outfit, Redington Fly Rods is donating three, and Orvis is donating one.

Phil Hager of Sisters Compound Rods will give a talk for the kids called "That Won't Work." Jason Borger - who has had a fly in his hand since he could walk - will also talk fish with the kids.