The Angler's Bamboo

By Luis Marden

The first book dedicated to telling the story of Tonkin cane. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558215352
• ISBN13: 9781558215351
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Sweet Feel of Tonkin

I received Angler's Bamboo as a gift from my cousin, Gib Cooper who along with his wife owns and operates Tradewinds Bamboo Nursery out of Gold Beach, Oregon. The book provides a concise history of how "tea stick bamboo" came to be revered by anglers around the world. What the Chinese had known before the birth of Christ, Western civilization came to know much, much later. Of all the known natural materials that are lightweight, and small in diameter, bamboo proved to one of the strongest. As Marden explains: "Fibrovascular bundles (the rod maker's 'power fibers') stronger than steel, concentrated toward the outer surface of the hollow bamboo culm, or stalk, grow in parallel bundles held in a pithy matrix, giving bamboo it's qualitites of lightness and strength." He credits the first fishing rod consulted of entirely split bamboo coming out of England around 1830. And not many years after that, "the father of the split-bamboo rod" across the pond is Samuel Phillippe, a gunsmith by trade. By 1845 Phillippe is constructing entire rods of four-strip sections. The origin of the six-strip hexagonal rod is commonly credited to another American gunsmith, Hiram Leonard. But as Marden states: "but, six-strip history... is diffuse and uncertain." Angler's Bamboo devotes significant detail about the Tonkin cane growing area in the Kwangtung Province of China. Luis Marden describes his travel to the region as well as the American botanist Floyd McClure's discovery of the Lovely bamboo in the Waitsap area. The Sui River flows through the heart of the Tonkin forest where these terrific grasses can grow to a height of forty feet in six to eight weeks. Finally, a number of wonderful color, photos show the Tonkin growing area, the harvest, transport down river, and the final processing of the cane for shipment to rod builders around the world. This ancient and unique species of plant - what a wonderful match for the task of angling. This book was first reviewed on the reviewer's own site: EcoAngler.com - The Nature of Fly Fishing.

A very informative compendium about anglers bamboo

Mardens Book is mabye noth the stuff who anglers are searchin for - he write`s a lot about the bamboo, exact "Tonkin Cane" in his book. How and where it grows, the circumstances in China, a lot about the "Power fibres" in the bamboo etc. The book has only few sites about the rodbuilding and fishing with this genre of rods. But i must say, it`s a very good book for rodmakers, who are interested in the life of her building stuff. I think after reading mardens book, you will take a closer look to your new bamboo culms. But the book is also a welcome gift for everyone who`s interested in bamboo plants. Read and enjoy it!