Bamboo Tips - Contributors
Paskin, Keith

< Home < Contributors < Paskin, Keith

My name is Keith Paskin, I live on Vancouver Island, in a small beautiful oceanside spot, with ample lakes and rivers, for trout, salmon and steelhead fishing. I am very close to Haig Brown country, and it was from the study of Haig Browns writings that I developed my interest in Bamboo rods.

My first rod was a cheap Japanese import from a flea market, the type that the handle is reversible for spinning or casting. I refinished and fished it, and from there I was hooked, I too contacted Harold Demarest  by mail and attended my first Merrit meeting in 1994, from which I built my first Bamboo rod, an awful stiff stick, that would THROW a fly a few feet only.

Since then I have moved frequently back and forth from BC to Alberta for business and personal reasons, which made it hard to be productive, but I have made 28 rods in that period, many that have been donated, and auctioned for fishing and conservation fund raising.

I am now 64, and due to the economic future will probably no longer be active in my industry as a construction executive, so I am intending to pursue my rod building more aggressively, and have associated with my friend at Islander reel to make a local rod and reel combination.

I have only been on the list for a year, but really enjoy the information and sharing, even the silly stuff, it is good to feel connected to a fellowship with so much in common, and an understanding of this passion that we have for cutting up pieces of grass, gluing it back together, and waving it around to catch fish.