I lost a fly rod and reel somewhere in PA. Maybe it’s lost and gone forever, but I’m hoping some honest angler might have found it.
It?s an 8 1/2 foot, 5 weight, with reel, not in a case. If you found an outfit like this in PA, please PM me, and I will provide additional detailed information to confirm its identity.
It would be nice to be able to blame this absent-mindedness on advancing age, but I’ve forget stuff like this even when I was in my teens. And it hasn’t got better.
When this happens to me, and I have been known to loose a few things over the years, I kick myself then hope that who ever finds the lost item is able to really enjoy it for a long time. Then I kick myself again.
Larry 
—sagefisher—
While I have some sympathy for your plight; I also have a bit of advice since it always amazes me when people lose stuff like an outfit.
At the end of a day of fishing do NOTHING until you pack up your gear. I have a post fishing ritual of a beer or two and a BS session if I’m fishing with friends but I won’t touch anything or start chatting in earnest until EVERYTHING is packed safely away. I put my rod & reel away FIRST and NEVER lay it down beforehand.
This little ritual has kept me out of trouble ever since I learned the easy way when a friend left a pair of wading shoes behind.
BTW how can you have no idea where you lost it?
I rember once a while back. I was out in this calm part of a lake near by home. Floating around. Anyway as time past I decided to wait;not float. My tube wasnt that comfy to carry on my back. So I decided to tie it to a tree near by. I know real geniuse move there… Anyway I ended up getting a bit away from it, and on my return it was gone.
I cannot tell you how upset I was, it bothered me for days. A few weeks latter I was out at that same spot. And there were these three kids floating around having a great time. I have no prof that it was my tube for sure, but I belive it was. I never said a thing, I was just glade someone was having fun with it.
Sorry to hear about your lost outfit. So far I have avoided that by following three rules. I ALWAYS take down my rod and reel first and put them in their cases, even before taking off my waders and no matter how uncomfortably hot it is. I NEVER place gear of any kind at any time on top of my vehicle. I ALWAYS check around my parking spot when I leave for the day, and as I pull away I also look back at the spot, even to using my headlights to make sure. A good friend of mine drove away from his tackle bag containing a couple hundred dollars of plugs, but was fortunate that an honest angler posted it on a website and my friend got them back. I hope you have the same good fortune.
Sadly, I am not that disciplined in the rest of my life but, oh well, I have fun anyway.
Glenn
For those that always do the right thing, my hat is off to you, but this isn’t the first time that this type of thing has happened to someone. It happens and it sucks. I personally left a new Reddington with a Life Time warranty and a nice reel with $60 line on top of my van and then proceeded to drive off. I returned to the spot within 20 min, I contacted the police to see if anyone turned it in. The whole outfit was about a month old and a year later it still sucks. No I didn’t get it back, and now I am one of those guys that as my fishing partner is about to drive away, I have to jump out of the car and look over the parking lot one more time.
I wish you luck finding your outfit.
Rick