Best rod: Orvis “Far and Fine”, 7’9" 5-weight, 2 and 1 eighth ounce graphite rod. Received it as a Christmas present from my dad in 1976. This is from the early days of graphite rods and you can actually see the spiral wraps along the entire length. Overwhelming sentimental value to me.
The other thing I couldn’t be without when I go fishing are all the memories of past fishing outings which have become especially poignant since I lost my dad.
I take comfort when I dwell on the passage from Corey Ford’s masterpiece, “The Road to Tinkhamtown”, where the story’s protagonist is arguing with his doctor about the past(excerpt follows):
“Doc used to argue that what’s over is over, but he would insist Doc was wrong. Everything is the way it was, he’d tell Doc. The past never changes. You leave it and go on to the present, but it is still there, waiting for you to come back to it.”
Gardenfish,
Yep!..I named my 1942 vintage bamboo, but if I could name 2, my new Sage VT2 6 wt would be right there as well. Sages are wonderful rods.
Mike
My most favorite fly rod is “Maxima 9?f8?h #9-10” by Ken Sawada. Mr. Sawada may not be well known in the U.S. as a rod maker but he has produced excellent fly rods in Japan for more than two decades. If you are interested, I recommend you to go to [url=http://www.kensawada.com.:81800]www.kensawada.com.[/url:81800]
I’d use it with the Sussex reel (SU STEELHEADER Silver).
Favorite is my Sage 9 ft 5 wt RPL with Ross Evo reel. However, my wife gave me a Sage 389-4 SLT for X-Mas. I have a feeling that the SLT may become my favorite. I won’t know for sure until it stops raining!