A Long Time Coming!

Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you have killed my father, prepare to die! Kidding. My name is Grant Bullinger. "Hello Grant." And I am a fly fisherman. I started fly fishing 13 years ago. When I first started, I would go fly fishing on the weekends with friends. Before I knew it, I found myself fly fishing during the week, alone. I know I need help but I can't stop.

Yeah, I'm a fish-aholic. I admit it. I have a problem. I live in Texas and as you may know, Texas does not have trout. What it does have is a ton of warm water rivers with an abundance of species. I know. I have fly fished here for over 13 years. I think about fishing all day and if I'm lucky, I dream about it at night.

Fly fishing is a gateway hobby. Hobby is too weak of a word. It's a gateway obsession. When I first started, I wore rubber waders and my rod and reel came from Wal-Mart. My tailspin started when I bought my first pair of Orvis breathable waders. Wow! What a difference that made. After the waders came the onslaught of various fly rods. I have 6 graphite rods; Orvis, Temple Fork Outfitters, and Sage. 3 weight to 8 weight. I have the gear to fish from small freestone creeks to the Redfish filled waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I wish I knew how many flies I owned that are held in the 15 different fly boxes that I have. I am a junkie looking for my next fix. I thought I had tried it all until one fateful day.


Back in October of 2008 I was reading the Wall Street Journal. I came across a story about a small businessman named William Oyster. Mr. Oyster started in life as a professional cyclist in Colorado. He would guide fly fishing trips to supplement his income. One day, in the deep recesses of a fly shop he came across a book that detailed the fine art of making fly rods out of bamboo. His dual collegiate degrees of engineering and art lent themselves well to his new endeavor and before he knew it, he had to retire from cycling to meet the demand for his beautiful split cane rods.

I was jealous! Here's a guy that is building bamboo fly rods, the holy grail of fly fishing, and to do that he had to retire from cycling. My mouth watered at his life. There I was, sitting in a call center for a financial services company, selling bonds to the elderly, and he was testing his product on the trout streams of northern Georgia. As I read the article I found that William Oyster offered classes to the public on the fine art of rod building. I was instantly hooked! (No pun intended) I called my fishing buddy, who happens to be an ER doctor and we signed up.

That was almost a year ago. It has been a long, painful wait but the time is almost here. My friend and I will leave on September 19th to fly to Georgia and learn from the master.
Bamboo-zeled isn't a blog about being deceived or taken advantage of. The name is only a pathetic attempt to be clever. I merely want to chronicle my experience of building my own bamboo fly rod so that my fellow addicts may join me in what I expect to be an amazing experience!

I will be posting daily updates with pictures to show how "pushers" like Mr. Oyster, can take a small time "junkie" like me and create a family heirloom out of a raw piece of bamboo. Class starts on September 20th!

Tight Lines!