LAS VEGAS — A Scottish company has joined a Las Vegas firm to make fishing rods from carrots.

E21, the American company, is applying the same technology in an attempt to develop golf club shafts that would reduce tendonitis and drive a golf ball farther and straighter than conventional materials would.

Carrot Stix, the veggie-based fishing rods, won the best-in-show award at the American Sportfishing Association’s international trade show this week. The carrot-orange rods are lighter than graphite, but have more stretch to land larger fish, according to David Hepworth, a director of CelluComp, the Scottish firm that developed Curran, the new material made from vegetables.

Ken Whiting, vice president of E21 Fishing said he believes Curran also may produce longer and straighter golf drives, but he is certain that carrot-based golf club shafts will reduce tendonitis. “There’s no question about that,” he said.

CelluComp, the Scottish company, developed a process to extract “nano-cellulose,” — material with fibers that are submicroscopic — from plants. The material starts out looking like soup, then it becomes mushy, and after it is processed, it resembles Play-Doh, said Eric Whale, another director of the Scottish company. “The fibers are very strong, tough and elastic,” he said. “Then we combine them with resins that we can use to make products.”

Most top-of-the-line fishing-rod manufacturers use graphite, also called carbon fiber, in their rods, but some anglers still prefer the feel and fighting capabilities of fiberglass, a heavier material that isn’t as stiff and brittle as graphite.

Curran, said David Hepworth “is lighter than carbon fiber, and it has a similar stiffness, but it stretches further before it fails. It allows you to build rods that have the strength and toughness of glass rods with the weight of carbon rods.

“In the case of a bass rod, that’s obviously a huge advantage because a heavy fish is going to give a lot of curvature to the rod. We use a computer to design the rods to ensure there are no points for stress to develop so it creates a more even fishing rod.”

CelluComp has used the new material to develop its own brand of fly rods, called Just Cast, in Great Britain.

“In fly rods, it does the same thing so you can make fly rods that bend further before they fail, and the material also has some better dampening properties than graphite.” Hepworth said. “That’s important when you’re casting backwards and forwards because vibrations at the tip of the rod will be imparted to the line, and that prevents a nice shooting of the line.”

Vibration dampening is also important in golf clubs, said Whiting, who, before he entered the fishing-tackle market, said he was a consultant designing golf club shanks and heads for E21.

“We hope Curran will be the Holy Grail, what manufactures have been looking for and have tried to accomplish: the total dampening of a golf shaft,” he said. “That has ramifications in preventing tendonitis, and as far as the game is concerned, it has consequences in relation to distance and straight hits.” The U.S. Patent Office has issued many patents to designs intended to dampen vibration in golf clubs.

The Carrot Stix fishing rods at the Las Vegas show had Curran fiber over a thin graphite core. “It’s about 30 percent carbon, and 70 percent Curran,” Whiting said. When they hit the market, the spinning and casting rods probably will cost between $300 and $350 each.

tmeade@projo.com