Although Montague would continue to be the leader in the production of trade rods, Montague began to market their rods with their own decals as the 1920s ended. They made over 50 different models that ranged in price from $3.00 to $35.00 in the 1930s. The Montague Red Wing is the most commonly seen example of the high quality rods seen today. The Rapidan is the most common midlevel, and the Subeam the most common lower level rods seen today.

Leonard and Montague stand as examples of two different levels of bamboo fly rods: the craftsman vs. the large manufacturer. Other well known craftsman type makers were Paul Young, The Edwards Family, F.E, Thomas, LL Dickerson, H.W. Hawes and Bill Phillipson. High quality smaller manufacturers include Winston and Orvis - which still make high quality bamboo rods to this day. Larger manufacturers included high quality Heddon, and South Bend and bargain basement Horrocks Ibbotsons and Union Hardware.

Bamboo soon became the preferred material for all fishing rods with Tonkin cane being prized above other species. This continued to 1950 when a trade embargo was imposed on Chinese goods. Due to the resultant shortage of quality bamboo and the concurrent development of synthetic fibers the fabrication of bamboo rods nearly stopped. By the time the embargo ended in the early seventies only a handful of craftsmen were still making bamboo rods. The main reason for bamboo rods regaining their popularity was a result of Everett Garrison together with Hoagy Bix Carmichael publishing bamboo rod building ‘secrets’ in their book A Master's Guide to Building a Bamboo Fly Rod.