[booker]

Since bamboo flyrods are made with Tonkin bamboo (Pseudosasa amabilis) most of which is imported, that causes an artificial inflation of raw material price. Couple that with the man hours needed to produce a operable fly rod and then you have a price similar to some of nicer man-made material rods. However, throw a company like Orvis in the mix, which offers bamboo rods for many thousands of dollars, and suddenly every wanna-be fly fisherman with money (yuppies) wants one, which skyrockets the price. Alternatively, you could find a small company like High Desert (good looking products) and you can get a nice rod for one hell of a deal- but only because actual fishermen buy them.

I see people straight off the cover of an Orvis catalog every fall up in Shenandoah NP- yuppie types from UVA that couldn't catch a fish if you threw it at them. Last few years they have been sporting bamboo rods.