03-25-2003, 09:53 PM
[cool]Hey, Ron San, I felt your pain as I read about fido and the flyrods. I once took a former "friend" on a five hour drive to a favorite trout venue, with only one rod. That was a violation of my universal rule that I always have at least two other outfits...to bracket whatever the conditions might be.
You guessed it. I never got to wave a fly on that trip. I had put my rod lovingly together, chose a new 12' tapered leader and tied on the magic fly that was going to do the job. I leaned the rod against a tree, a few feet away from the car, to avoid any possibility of accidental damage. As I walked back to the car to get my rod, after going down to the stream for a quick survey, I watched in slow motion horror as a light gust os wind blew the car door shut on my rod...which former friend had leaned against the car to see how I had rigged it. Yep...four pieces, instead of the preferred two.
FF offered to let me use his rod. But, since it was at least an 8 weight, and an old model wimpy fibreglass model, I did not even want to insult the little spotted beauties of this stream with it. This was 3 weight water all the way, but my new 3 weight died before it was baptized.
Do I take good care of my tackle? Probably better than most, but not as good as some. Heck, I know guys that actually rinse their stuff off in fresh water after fishing in the salt.
Actually, I have a pretty complete tackle repair facility in my tackletorium. I build and repair rods and I can disassemble and reassemble most reels, with a minimum number of spare parts left over. Sometimes they even work after I work on them.
I'm like most fishermen I know. I would always like to have the baddest, newest most expensive new toys on the market. But, common sense and "Mama sense" often dictates that I reassess my priorities before I put new scorch marks on my plastic cards.
The good news is that you don't always need to spend the most to get good serviceable gear. But, without some regular attention to basic maintenance, even the priciest stuff can turn to junk in the hands of someone who is hard on tackle.
It's kinda funny, but over the years some of the biggest fish I have seen caught...of several species...were caught by kids or rookies using some of the cheapest most mismatched tackle imaginable. That's the kind of thing that helps keep me humble when I begin to believe my own line of BS.
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You guessed it. I never got to wave a fly on that trip. I had put my rod lovingly together, chose a new 12' tapered leader and tied on the magic fly that was going to do the job. I leaned the rod against a tree, a few feet away from the car, to avoid any possibility of accidental damage. As I walked back to the car to get my rod, after going down to the stream for a quick survey, I watched in slow motion horror as a light gust os wind blew the car door shut on my rod...which former friend had leaned against the car to see how I had rigged it. Yep...four pieces, instead of the preferred two.
FF offered to let me use his rod. But, since it was at least an 8 weight, and an old model wimpy fibreglass model, I did not even want to insult the little spotted beauties of this stream with it. This was 3 weight water all the way, but my new 3 weight died before it was baptized.
Do I take good care of my tackle? Probably better than most, but not as good as some. Heck, I know guys that actually rinse their stuff off in fresh water after fishing in the salt.
Actually, I have a pretty complete tackle repair facility in my tackletorium. I build and repair rods and I can disassemble and reassemble most reels, with a minimum number of spare parts left over. Sometimes they even work after I work on them.
I'm like most fishermen I know. I would always like to have the baddest, newest most expensive new toys on the market. But, common sense and "Mama sense" often dictates that I reassess my priorities before I put new scorch marks on my plastic cards.
The good news is that you don't always need to spend the most to get good serviceable gear. But, without some regular attention to basic maintenance, even the priciest stuff can turn to junk in the hands of someone who is hard on tackle.
It's kinda funny, but over the years some of the biggest fish I have seen caught...of several species...were caught by kids or rookies using some of the cheapest most mismatched tackle imaginable. That's the kind of thing that helps keep me humble when I begin to believe my own line of BS.
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