Bamboo Tips - Contributors Babulic, Jon |
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My name is Jon Babulic & I live in Guelph, Ontario. About 10 minutes from the Grand tailwater (were Canadian cane is held). I have 2 daughters, 3 and 3 months. I grew up in Thunder Bay & spent most of my formative years and university life chasing coaster brookies and steelhead along the north shore of Lake Superior. I’m 36 & have been fly fishing for my basically whole life. I built my first graphite rod 6 years ago & my first PMQ about 4 years ago. Since then it’s been cane only for basically everything from carp to steelhead. I just can’t seem to get enough. My rods look like crap & I’m OK with this. They periodically get thrown in the back of my pickup truck or up onto the bank so for me utilitarian is better. I fish bamboo because I believe that it’s the best material to make a fly cast with (and the most fun). Making rods is just a means to an end for me & when I retire (in 28 years) I hope to make a few that look a bit better then the ones I make now. A couple of years ago I was approached by the producers of the New Fly Fisher TV show to co-host a few episodes, one that I did exclusively with cane rods. In the show they described me as a master rodmaker, so if you have seen the episode please understand that I had absolutely no editorial control & almost wet my pants laughing when I saw this. I hope they ask me to do a few more episodes ~ this is a great gig if you don’t need to make any money at it and the shows premise of teaching people to fly fish is one I fully support. I’m a life member to Trout Unlimited Canada and try to make out to most of the local work days (although I typically skip the meetings J) I usually figure out how to get west to fish the Bow annually and manage a trip to superior to chase silver in the tribs at least once a year. Otherwise most of my time is spent on local streams and ponds often with my 3 year old daughter in tow. Basically, my whole family fly fishes, although most of them with graphite (I guess you can’t pick your family eh) so I’m fortunately never short of excuses to get out and wet a line. I attended my first gathering this year (Canadian Cane) and was astonished at how opened and supportive the community as a whole is. I suppose this list is a big part of that community too. So thanks!!
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