CoachBob,

I was on a guided drift one time on the Beaverhead River in Montana. The guide had a rigid framed raft and they don't have the rod storage space that some drift boats have. That means the guide didn't bring any of his rods.

I had two fly rods with me. One was for streamers and one for dries. Half way through the drift the tip section of my streamer rod broke (I was casting heavy double streamers and a bad cast caused one of the streamers to hit the rod with the point of the hook). That left me with one rod, my dry fly rod. If that rod broke I would have no rods for fishing and would simply be along for the ride.

That made me realize that from then on I always take three rods. One for nymphing/streamers. One for dries. One as a back-up for any broken rods.

My back-up rod is a 5 piece 9 foot Sage SP. I keep it in the original metal tube and take it with me everywhere. I have rigged it up and used it as a third rod a few times. There are a few rivers I fish where there will be nymphing and also chucking streamers and then casting dries all in a matter of a few hundred yards, so it is nice to have all three rigged and ready to cast.

So, I always have three rods.

Larry ---sagefisher---