One of my better moments happened a few years ago on the second day of a weekend trip. It was day two of the christening of a new fancy schmancy graphite rod I had just purchased. The day was sunny, warm and tons of flies were in the air.

Having fished bamboo most of my life I was accustomed to joining a rod together but not stringing it up until ready to fish to avoid tangles and snags while walking through the woods on the way to a spot I wished to fish. After walking a good distance up and down stream on a very hilly and rocky creek I discovered to my horror that somehow the top section of my BRAND NEW four piece high priced rod was gone! I assumed one of the guides somehow got snagged on a tree branch and pulled the section off.

I spent the next 5 hours climbing up and down those trails looking in vain for a very skinny dark green rod section in amongst the billions of look-alike items on the forest floor. Besides feeling like a complete a$$; I expected to have to pay well over $150 for a new tip section. I never did find the section and wasted a whole day of excellent fishing despite having an extra rod in the trunk. Added to that embarrassment; I dumped a whole Richardson box FULL of flies on the ground back at the car.

But to add insult to injury on this already horrible trip; I was dealt an additional reason to kick myself for wasting so much time looking for the errant rod section. When I sent the rod back to have a new section made I was quoted a price of $10 for the replacement. Maybe they felt sorry for me for being so stupid or maybe that was the going rate on a $600 dollar rod. But walking around for 5 hours in the woods in waders with ? of a rod looking for a $10 part made it a duh-oh for the books.

These days I always string up my rods ahead of time even if it means changing flies, leaders or tippets when I get to the waters edge.


[This message has been edited by Bamboozle (edited 12 April 2005).]