Sweetgrass Rods, hand-crafted in Twin Bridges, Montana, keeps bamboo craft alive

Jerry Kustich looks down the shaft of one of his bamboo fly rods and sees a tool perfectly crafted for laying down a fly with a delicate cast.

Bamboo, after all, was the original material for fly rod construction, stretching back well over a century. Yet, in this modern age of high-tech materials, bamboo is not only alive, but thriving after making a comeback, Kustich said.

"Serious anglers today see a value in having bamboo rods in their collections," he said in the shop of Sweetgrass Rods http://www.sweetgrassrods.com/ , a company the 62-year-old Kustich has helped start. "It’s the pure aesthetics of fishing with a natural product."

By Story and photos by Nick Gevock

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2009/04/12/business/hjjajfihjjeejc.txt