$1500.00 Worth of Gear Stolen
This past Friday, a friend of mine from ABQ made the suicide trip up to my home river the San Juan. He doesn?t get to fish often, so I decided to meet him at one of the popular holdes to fish with him. We had a fantastic day of fishing at 3,000cfs. When it was time to head out around 3pm, we took apart our gear, my ABQ friend left, and another friend of mine, Paul and I went down to the handicapped piers to try and find a friend Drew (NM Angler) in the Thole. I left my wader bag, fly box, and my Sage Rods on the windshield, and didn?t think twice about their safe keeping, ( In 5 years of fishing the river A LOT, I?ve never had anything happen to my gear ). Paul and I found Drew, we watched him fish to a couple of hogs, and Paul headed home while I stayed talking to Drew. After 5 minutes, I decided to launch my boat and row Drew out to a good spot in the Thole to fish with him. I put the boat in, grabbed my rods, and my boat bag, and Drew and I fished for a few hours. (Drew caught some nice fish on worm patterns).
Well, that?s when the hell started. When I walked back to the truck to take the boat out, I ran into a nice couple from Scottsdale, AZ who were passing through town. They asked me about the river, fishing etc?, so I gave them the tour, and told them how great the San Juan River was, and that they had to come back sometime. Then, when I reached down for my wallet to give them a few business cards, I couldn?t find it in my bag. I thought it was weird, but assumed it was there somewhere. Well, things just started to get worse when I looked in the back of the truck and found my 400.00 Simms Waders, 169.00 Simms Guide Boots, Simms Gravel Guards, wading belt, and my precious San Juan fly box with 750 flies in it gone. I FRANTICALLY checked all around, but found nothing. I stopped at the fly shops, called the State Parks, and no one had reported anything. Someone had just stolen $1500.00 worth of gear from my truck!! I was sick to my stomach and felt like an idiot for ever trusting anyone enough to leave my gear in the back of my truck just 100 yards away from me! So, here I am on a 2 week stint of trips with only my boat box, a pair of Simms Waders with a 3 inch hole in them at the waist, and an old pair of Chota boots to try and work with. I feel unbelievably hopeless, and can?t believe this happened.
I still say 95% of fly fishers are GOOD people, but I will remain forever skeptical about people stealing fly fishing gear. It?s sad to think I moved from the big city to get away from crime only to have over a thousand dollars worth of gear stolen
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Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies!
www.customflys.com
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