We've seen them and they are amazing!
Meet Don Gautier or, as he refers to himself on Facebook as The Story Teller. Don knows a lot about Tripletail (a type of fish) and runs the Facebook Group Tripletail Fever. He is also doing really cool things with our bamboo poles, the Calcutta Bamboo Poles specifically. We love knowing what he’s been doing with Calcutta poles so much that we had to share his story with you.
First, let’s start with Tripletail. Until we met Don, we hadn’t the slightest idea about this type of fish. What we learned is that Tripletail is a tropical and subtropical species that can be found globally but within the US from Massachusetts south along the Atlantic coast and throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
Tripletail tend to drift, especially beneath floating material, boats, and buoys or adjacent to posts and pilings. They lie on their sides and float lazily near the surface, looking like clumps of leaves or a plastic bag. Knowing this behavior will help a fisherman know where to find and catch tripletail. This brings us to Don Gautier. Don says that back in the day, the way to catch tripletail was by flipping over whatever it was they were hanging on and catch them. Now, he and his tripletail-catching community use his hand-crafted Calcutta Bamboo Poles.
He's only been building them since January 2020 but has raised quite an interest from around the US. He’s even been able to convert die-hard rod-and-reel users to Calcutta Pole fishermen. He told us the story of when he went fishing with his cousin Craig who brought a rod and reel. Don showed him how to use a Calcutta Pole and he caught a couple of good-sized tripletail. They went out the next day and caught six! Since then Craig has been fishing with his Calcutta Poles.
These poles are starting to really catch on. Don says that down in Southeast Louisiana folks are catching alligators on these poles, amazing!
We hope one day you will get to know Don Gautier, not only for his amazing Calcutta Poles, but also to enjoy a well-told story.