A thread on another board reminded me of a topic that might be valuable to share. I’m assuming most of us have lost or broken (or nearly lost or broken) gear for one reason or another and modified the way we did things in the future as a result. Thought it might be interesting to share those lessons for each other’s benefit. A few that I can think of:
[ul]
[li]Fly boxes - I’ve been fortunate enough not to lose any, but the first time I dunked mine and had to spread all the flies out at home to dry, I did a quick count and was floored at the number I had in each box (I use the slotted foam type that hold a small fly shop’s worth). I did the arithmetic real quick, multiplying the number of flies times $2, added in the price of the box, and realized the multiple hundreds of dollars worth of “inventory” that would go floating downstream if I happened to bobble even one box. Shortly thereafter, I purchased a number of inexpensive zingers and attached one to each fly box and pinned them to the inside of their respective vest pockets[/li][li]Tungsten putty and the Idiot, Take One - I’m a huge fan of a particular brand of tungsten putty and use it exclusively when I need to add weight to my line. Used to keep its container in a vest pocket until I bobbled it one day in murky water. It sunk like a stone of course, and I was without for the rest of the day. From there on, I got wise (or so I thought) and added the container to a zinger that I had some other stuff hanging on.[/li][li]Tungsten putty and the Idiot, Take Two, with new lessons for strike indicators and other accessories - On one very cold fishing day, I committed two acts of ineptitude. First, my very cold fingers apparently failed to fully close the lid on the aforementioned putty container that was hanging from its zinger. The container was secured to the zinger alright. Problem was, the container was empty. A few hours later, I discovered that my numb fingers had also apparently not put my little ziplock bag full of Thingamabobbers in my vest pocket as intended. This one’s a bit of a mystery - I don’t know whether I sort of pushed them across the outside of the vest, whether I fumbled them back out of the pocket somehow before closing the pocket or what, but for the rest of the three day trip, I had only the indicator that was on my line at the end of that first day. Now, I make a point with anything of this type to break things up into at least two containers and keep them in separate pockets. The putty stays on the zinger, but I keep half of the “blob” in a separate container elsewhere in my vest in case of a repeat performance. Likewise with the indicators and other essentials. If it’s conceivable that I could separate myself from them somehow, I try to make sure I don’t keep all of my proverbial eggs in one basket that, if lost somehow, would leave me in a jamb onstream.[/li][/ul]There are more I’m sure, but those are my tales of woe so far and the lessons learned from same. How about you guys?
Ms. Fumblefingers nearly lost a brand-new C&F box that the Light of Her Life had presented on Valentine’s Day, with all her flies in it. right there on the stream she took an old leader and fixed the situation!
gear retention is why God invented leader butts: they make wonderful tie-ups for almost everything in my Mayfly pouch, especially the fly box and stream thermometer. lighter/cheaper than zingers and good for minimalist set-ups.
Don’t leave your fanny pack full of flies on top of the car while changing from one fishing spot to another…Best Regards…
Good thing for floating fly boxes and your girlfriend fishing down stream 
If it’s not covered in cork, you shouldn’t have your hand on it, no matter how big the fish is or how excited you are. You’d be amazed how many rods get broken right above that spot you grabbed to get a little more pressure on the fish you were fighting. Only took once for me. Lesson learned.
I don’t lend any equipment to anyone, including my own kids/grandkids, that I want keep “for eternity”. Many, many years ago a buddy of mine broke the first fly rod that I owned and I made a promise to myself then not to lend anything. I would buy the kids their own gear before I would let them use mine. Call me selfish if you like, but hearing that rod snap that day is a sound that I just can’t get rid of.
George
Don’t leave my hat on while running the river in the sled. Lost two favorite fishing hats along with hat eyes before learning to remove hat before hitting throttle.
- Never trust factory-installed braided loops on fly lines.
- If you’re fishing right up until the time you have to get to the airport, assume one of your rod sections will not come apart and give yourself extra time to un-stick it. If anyone saw a guy doing what looked like a combination of squat thrusts and the Funky Chicken in the parking lot by Flat Creek in WY 3 weeks ago, that was me.
Regards,
Scott
You can borrow my wife and kids, but you can never borrow my truck, my dog, my guns, or my fishing equipment.
I write my name and phone number on my fly boxes, rod tubes, and fishing pack. My hope is if a fellow fisherman finds anything I’ve left behind he/she may just give me a call.
ONLY lock your car with the remote if your car has a remote. If not, ONLY lock it with the key. Don’t ask how I know this but let’s just say the wife was less than happy to get the phone call (it was her van that I was locked out of).
Cell phones can be a good thing (see key comment above)
Always carry a spare fly rod or two when fishing far from home. My son broke a rod on a trip last year and it didn’t ruin the day because I had a couple spares in the trunk of the car.
Also, car windows and fly rods do not always play well together.
5X tippet is just about worthless in pulling a tree limb down far enough to grab it and remove your stuck fly.
I’m sure there are more but at 9:00am I have’t had enough coffee yet.
Don’t leave your hat on the hood…yep. Done that one. Stopped at a deli for a quick sandwich on way to fish. Came out, placed sandwich and hat on hood, arranged some things in pick up and placed sandwich in…for got hat. Start truck and think wind blew hat off before I see it. Anyway to make it worse I look back over my shoulder to back up and not hit anything. When I straighten up to go forward there is no hat for me to see…and I drive away. I don’t remember how far I went or how long I was gone. But went back to that parking lot and NO HAT. People in deli say nobody turned one it…
Not too good a fly fisherman. Wanna catch trout, so therefore throw money at it…collect lot’s of flies cause wanna catch fish. Buying groups of flies from FAOL for years. Flyboxes as well. One flybox I know had 85 wonderful small flies that came with the box. G&F wanted help catching fish for a test. I put ALL my flies in a bag and went out on the lake…captsized my boat and lost my whole collection of flies. Maybe keep them in a waterproof bag, and attach bag to boat, and keep zipped shut at all times. Wont’ ever lose your entire years collection of great wonderful flies the people on FAOL tie. Also lost rod, reel, line, but I came out ok…
Oh…the laws here say PFD within reach. Do not have to wear it. I end up in the water with waders on…boat upside down and floating, and me hanging on to the trolling motor shaft sticking straight up in the air. I luckily can snatch PFD floating near me before it floats away. THAT shoulda been on me or attached somewhere…but big thing is I could not put it on while in the water holding one hand on the boat! It is the time that wears like a vest, place boaf arms in it and clip straps together. I could get ONE arm in the PFD…I COULD NOT manage to get my other arm in it and wear it for safety…after I got in the water. It floats wide open on the surface, I could not bring the other arm hole around and get my last arm in it…it just keep floating away and I couldn’t turn loose of the shaft or down I go. I am not afraid of water so thankful for that. Cause last year I had to save a 360 pound 6’-6" guy who capsized. He went into shock cause he couldn’t swim. I was calm and that is a lucky feature for me. No big deal. But I sure could not get that pfd on me. I still don’t wear it…but think I should…still wear the hip waders too…duh…in a boat? dumb
pay attention to where you put your feet when in new waters- learned that from my dad who found a hole, lost his footing and went for a ride through some rapids on the North Platte river trying to cast to a pool he saw. when Ifound him at the bottom he was more than a little upset ( lost his pole, he thought) and banged up good. Luckily for him his son was down river and caught the the pole with his zebco… seven year olds know the loud white water looks cool, but it’s loud too fish hate loud, I thought, why else would my dad bark at me to shut up and stop scaring the fish? lol
when your done fishing put your rod back in its case ,and in a safe place I ended up kneeling on it to get something else out of the van at night and heard a snaping sound .
lesson learned. Rod socks do not prevent damage .
My tip would be exactly the opposite of one of Jeffnles1’s tips. I do see his point about carrying back-up equipment and how nice it is to have some extra stuff if something breaks or how nice it would be to have that one-weight rod near by if the midges are hatching. BUT the only thing I keep in my trunk is an extra set of dry clothing during cold weather. I especially don’t carry any extra rods, fly boxes, or Faberge eggs. Since many of my parking areas are far out in the Boonies, they are often scouted regularly by some real scumbags. I’ve been lucky and have never had my car broken into but I’ve had the car right next to me burglarized and stripped of extra equipment. I would also avoid placing bumper stickers on the car which identify you as a fly fisherman because fly fishermen equal high-end equipment in the mind of many of these predatory Neanderthals. Along the same line, avoid any stickers for Sage, Loomis, Orvis or any other high end equipment. Brand loyalty is a wonderful thing to announce to other fishermen but out in the boonies you might as well put a neon sign on your car that says"Rob Me!" I would mention some fantasies about certain types of booby traps which might be used to punish these predators but this is a family site and I don’t want to upset sensitive members with my dreams of mayhem and destruction.
BTW, one other tip has occurred to me. From personal experience, I can tell you that it is a VERY bad idea to fully open a standard, clear plastic fly box filled with very tiny dry flies on a really windy and gusty day such as often occurs in March. I once created a mixed midge hatch or approximately 18-24 dry flies from the top layer of fully filled compartments. I had no takers on any of the flies even though their leaderless drift was completely drag free. So much for perfect presentation. 8T
A spare vehicle key sewn into the inside of your vest is a good thing … spent 5 min. looking though the window of my car at my keys until I remembered the GREAT favor my wife did for me in sewing a spare in my vest
i dont buy the write your name, address and phone number on a fly box. nobody called and nothing in the mail.
John N,
When you take a fly box etc. from a pocket and then return it: 1. Make sure it is going into the pocket and not into the crick. 2. Zip/velcro the pocket all the way or you may wonder what that object(which is rapidly starting to look familiar and is rapidly heading for the bend downstream) could be! If you carry binoculars like I do, the mystery becomes apparent! Binoculars won’t help you retrieve your stuff, but you do get to stay visually connected for longer!LOL!!
Shadow,
Yes,yes and yes about the spare keys. If I’m fishing with some one I give them the spare set - Don’t trust myself! I locked my keys in the car 1 time. I knew it the instant I closed the door. Nooo cellphone coverage - of course! Lucky for me my Boy Scout/McGuyver training kicked in. I had left my front car window cracked just enough that I could deploy a toggle door lock extricating device (long stick) across the car interior to the far lock and push on the toggle hard enough to unlock it. Disclaimer : Kids. don’t do this at home! BTW, the McGuyver idea came AFTER I tried to remove the molding from a couple of windows!
Best regards, Dave S.
5 wt. rod will not pry boat cleat off. Tried three times so far. Also when you put rods in case’s put them in boat before you drive off not leaning against it . Ran over one and drove three mile’s before I thought about them. Lucky they were there when I got back.
knucks
My father always duct taped a spare key to the back side of his license plate. All you need is a coin to remove the license plate and you can get into your car even without your vest.
Always carry a spare fly rod or two when fishing far from home.
And near home! lol. I learned that one the hard way…and a couple time after that. lol.
Always check around your vehicle, before you leave. I’ve lost too much, not doing that.
ONLY lock your car with the remote if your car has a remote. If not, ONLY lock it with the key. Don’t ask how I know this but let’s just say the wife was less than happy to get the phone call (it was her van that I was locked out of).
Cell phones can be a good thing (see key comment above)
Always carry a spare fly rod or two when fishing far from home. My son broke a rod on a trip last year and it didn’t ruin the day because I had a couple spares in the trunk of the car.
Also, car windows and fly rods do not always play well together.
5X tippet is just about worthless in pulling a tree limb down far enough to grab it and remove your stuck fly.
That was hysterical! Unfortunately, there all very true. lol.