That’s why these bamboo tent poles caught our eye – especially since they’re being aimed at the ultralight backpacking crowd, who – believe me – make fly fishermen look like dilettantes when it comes to gear.

From the Gear Junkie:

The plan is to bank on a bamboo variety called Tonkin cane, which is sometimes dubbed “steel bamboo” for its dense fibers and long sections between nodes. Working with an Alaskan fly rod maker, NEMO’s prototype poles — which I handled and flexed at a recent press meeting — click together like any typical tent pole and whisk into nylon sleeves to support a shelter that might be put to endure hurricane-force winds.

But initial tests at NEMO (www.nemoequipment.com) give bamboo a green light for its strength and performance under pressure. “The benefits of bamboo are that it is lightweight, flexible and highly elastic,” wrote Kate Ketschek, the company’s director of marketing, in an email interview. “Fishermen have been using bamboo for its strength and flexibility for over 100 years and NEMO believes that these benefits will correlate with the essential properties of tent poles.”

Note the use of Tonkin Cane in the tent poles – the same bamboo used to make bamboo fly rods.

Note also the fact that the bamboo pieces are hollowbuilt, though I don’t know if they’ve got dams in them or are hollow from tip to butt.

See you setting up the tent, Tom Chandler

The Car, and...

Wally the Wonderdog. Too similar to be a coincidence, eh?

The uncanny resemblance couldn’t be coincidence, and the Underground is aggressively pursuing legal options to see that Wally Wonderdog receives the payment due him from the Japanese company, which clearly copied the highly aerodynamic shape of the Wonderdog’s nose.

We at the Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters share your sense of outrage at this blatant commercial appropriation. Burn in hell, Bambgoo Car:

Developed by Kyoto University Venture Business Laboratory, Bambgoo is a fully functional vehicle that runs for 50 kilometers on a single charge. This ecological concept car is 270 cm long, 130 cm wide, 165 cm high and only 60 kg heavy. That’s what’s so special about Bambgoo, its body is made out of bamboo.

Over the years, we’ve been subjected to countless “The First Time I Went Fly Fishing” stories at the hands of writers who clearly shouldn’t have gone (they can’t all be Freemans, sadly), but our favorite – nay, the very cherry on top of the reportage sundae – is the story about a local bamboo fly rod builder.

The Oregon Statesman Journal sent a reporter to interview bamboo rod builder Daryll Whitehead, who didn’t survive even the first line before being unfortunately described as the “Michelangelo of bamboo fly rods.“

Ouch.

The story doesn’t progress beyond the third sentence before we’re staggered by the Second Wince-Inducing Editorial Moment: The Dreaded Fly “Pole” Syndrome:

From a small home-based shop in west Stayton, Whitehead crafts some of
the most sought-after fishing poles in the world. His D.L. Whitehead
poles are sold on most continents and can fetch nearly $4,000 for a
used one.

Throughout the article, the writer goes on to use the “p***” word 11 times (fly fishing decency standards forbid me from printing the word again), perhaps a new editorial record.

The Underground sends our condolences to Mr. Whitehead – along with our hopes for a speedy recovery.

fly rod, bamboo fly rod, daryll whitehead, fly fishing, bamboo

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You can read the listing and see the pictures at the Classic Bamboo Fly Rod site (but only the Undergrounders get free shipping).

My goal? End up with a handful of 8.5′ rods that get fished regularly, and that means winnowing my embarrassing collection of 8′-8.5′ rods.

I’m asking $1500 for this fished-once rod that sold for $1695 when new (at least it would have if you could get one; George Maurer – the man who taught more people how to build bamboo fly rods than any other – suffered an untimely death a little over a year ago).

See you at the bank, Tom Chandler.

bamboo fly rod, bamboo, george maurer, sweetwater rods, bamboo fly rod sale

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Sure, the Underground maintains a love of all things bamboo, but even I’ll probably draw the line at $350 bamboo sunglasses.

Hell, that used to be my spending limit for a Phillipson bamboo fly rod, and everybody knows you can’t catch trout with bamboo sunglasses (at least not nearly as well as you can with a Phillipson fly rod).

Plus, I have yet to accidentally sit on a bamboo fly rod — something almost sure to happen with sunglasses.

See you (wearing plastic sunglasses) on the river, Tom Chandler.