Walking with the rod behind you/God Fly Fishes

[Wild One]

JZ, I've had a similar experience and I wasn't even deaf at the time

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

On the older metal ferruled rods have you ever not checked the join carefully as you should and flung the tip into the water. (luckily I was able to reel it in when the hook caught one of the guides )

[Wild One]

Gnu Bee, never had that experience, but it is pretty funny to picture!

[gonfishn]

I lost the tip of my favorite rod to a sweeper while floating the bitterroot a couple of years ago.
The next morning I took the same run again.As I skirted the sweeper I found the rod tip had wedged into a split in the log guides facing out.I beached the Toon and very happily rescued my trophy.I don't remember what I caught for fish that day but I know I was very happy.

[jeff98390j]

I will always walk with the rod behind me for the above mentioned reasons. And i will always keep it strung for the same ones mentioned above, and for one other reason. I returned to my truck with the rod broken down, and reel in the back of my vest after a great day on a small river. Too bad, cause the caddis hatch had really taken off on the walk back to my truck. While i only missed out on 5 extra minutes of fishing on that last 20 minutes of twilight, those 5 extra minutes to re rig seemed to take twice as long. It is hard to concentrate on the knots and fly selection while you hear fish rising all around you!

Have fun, Jeff

[billknepp]

I've seen this a million times discussed...and I still have to go with Joe Humphries in his video for fishing tight brush...and always keep my rod pointing ahead of me with the leader in my other hand so I can "Lead" the tip through....

[racine]

I took a fall in water up to my knee that was moving fast. I had a wading staff which I hung on to but my rod/reel was velcroed to my vest and it took a dive. I looked for about 20 min. and asked 3 rafters for help and got no response. I started walking downstream and looked for about another 20 min. without much luck. Finally 50 yds downstream I got back into the water out of desperation and waded for 5 ft and noticed something out of the ordinary- my 4 wt rig was in calf deep water! I guess thinking knee deep is a no brainer got the best of me. I try to never take anything for granted anymore...