Building your own fishing rods can be a great wintertime hobby for anglers who like to work with their hands. I started building rods in the early 1970s. Back then, rods were made from fiberglass.

I'm getting anxious now. Tom Smithwick, who moved to Shippensburg several years ago, builds bamboo fly rods. A couple weeks ago, he found three bamboo rod blanks and offered to help me build out a fly ...