I'm afraid I'm about to fall for another man's rod. My brothers, in fact.

About 5 or 6 years ago, my brother came down to Florida where I was living. He'd been fishing Michigan's Upper Peninsula streams with an ultralight and spinners. He decided he wanted to try fly fishing. A local fly shop hooked him up with a workmanlike beginner rig and an hour of free casting lessons to seal the deal.

That was the first time I'd ever been into a fly shop. I thought the exotic tools, gadgets, and other paraphernalia was neat. 4 years later I'd be in fly shops for myself.

Earlier this year, my wife expressed an interest in trying fly fishing. At the time, I only had my Sage FLi 5wt. I'd been looking at smaller rods for the Smokies, but had not yet purchased one. I was thinking something slower - like a Sage SLT or something similar. I won't lie - I like nice toys so I'd been looking at higher end rods, even some 'boo.

My brother offered to send down his rod. Turns out he'd never fished it. Once he discovered the Walleye in Lake Michigan, then the Salmon and Steelhead, he'd never gone back upstream.

In the meantime, I ended up buying an XP 8' 3wt on closeout. I wasn't sure about the action, but it didn't matter, my wife has decided that the XP is "her" rod. Dunno why, but when we tried casting in the back yard, she couldn't make the FLi work, but the XP worked just fine for her.

This week, I've spent some time with my brother in the UP. Naturally, we spent some time talking fishing. He's still focused on bigger fish, but I managed to con him into buying one of the SA combos at Wal-Mart for $25 to try on steelhead this spring. I'm now tying, so I'm going to tie up a bunch of egg patterns for him to fish up there.

He also mailed out that old rod while I was there, so I got to cast it first. It's an old St. Croix Pro Graphite, 7' 6" 4wt. It's got a Cortland Vista DA reel with an unknown yellow line on it. Still mint, as he only used it in the backyard for a while.

And it may cast exactly what I want my small stream rod to cast like. Somewhat moderate action, no rush, seems to be nice for shorter distances.

So my dilemma is whether to fish this rod or not. I'll likely not find another if I like it, so do I chance falling for my brother's rod? He has already mentioned now that he looks around the area that there is some nice brook trout water. He may want it back someday.

Is this just a reason to go buy a Scott G2 and forget about the rod tube that's headed to my house?