Did you ever just lose a fly rod?

This board is for discussing the collecting of bamboo fly rods, both classic and modern. Remember that respect and civility is the goal of this board.

Moderator: TheMontyMan

Bill Moschler
Guide
Posts: 134
Joined: 05/14/17 19:26

Did you ever just lose a fly rod?

#1

Post by Bill Moschler »

I feel dumb and that feeling seems to be entirely correct. We traveled extensively the last 2 summers in our travel trailer pulled by a pickup with a hard topper on it. I carried my Beasley Perfectionist in the back of the truck in a tube in a cloth sock around the tube or I carry it under the bed in the camper. It is now not in the truck, not in the camper, and not in the house. It is gone. And I have no idea how or when or even when I saw it last. I did not fish it the last 2 summer trips. I do not even know if I unloaded it into the garage last fall when we returned. I might have just thought it was in the camper.

That is a rod that I never thought I would part with. But parted, I am.

We had a lot of truck problems this summer and the truck was in shops many times, once for 3 days. But nothing missing but that rod and its tube. Maybe somebody made a good grab. The key to the topper stays on the truck key ring so the shops had it. That is the only thing I can think of but do not really think that happened. I would have noticed.

It is tough getting older and dumber at the same time. How the hell can you just lose a prized fly rod?

User avatar
DireWolf53
Master Guide
Posts: 530
Joined: 08/04/14 21:17
Location: Berkeley,California

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#2

Post by DireWolf53 »

Bill, What an awful way to part company with a rod. Once or twice I came close to leaving one behind before I learned the windshield trick. Since then I've managed to keep tabs on things.

Forgetfulness happens but dumb is this. After a day dodging stream side stinging nettles and rattlesnakes in the Owens River Gorge I careful packed everything away except for my rod and tube which I had placed on the bumper. Several hours later when we crested Sonora Pass (26% grade) I went around back to pull out the camping gear to discover the rod was still on the bumper! I probably have better odds of winning the lottery than repeating that foolishness.

Coming off the river these days I usually chant rod,reel,vest,waders.
"I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout." - Paul O'Neil

samsonboi
Master Guide
Posts: 711
Joined: 09/25/18 08:17

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#3

Post by samsonboi »

DireWolf53 wrote: I went around back to pull out the camping gear to discover the rod was still on the bumper!
Did you buy a lottery ticket that day? ;)
"Car ce n'est pas assez d'avoir l'esprit bon, mais le principal est de l'appliquer bien.”- Descartes

User avatar
DireWolf53
Master Guide
Posts: 530
Joined: 08/04/14 21:17
Location: Berkeley,California

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#4

Post by DireWolf53 »

samsonboi wrote:
DireWolf53 wrote: I went around back to pull out the camping gear to discover the rod was still on the bumper!
Did you buy a lottery ticket that day? ;)
If I could of I would of :rollin
"I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout." - Paul O'Neil

Cimarron
Guide
Posts: 256
Joined: 12/28/14 19:55
Location: Northern New Mexico

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#5

Post by Cimarron »

Not as dire a story, but I went bass fishing in Ontario some years ago in a friend’s boat and inadvertently left an Orvis 8 weight in the boat without even realizing it, while collecting all the other gear and rods from a day well spent. Months later he returned it to me with a slight shrug, having discovered it under something. I hadn’t even missed it. Might still not miss it for all I know.

alberta al
Master Guide
Posts: 515
Joined: 09/13/13 21:03

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#6

Post by alberta al »

DW,

I was fishing a grayling stream North of Edmonton with a couple of buds years ago. When I took my rod down at the end of the day, I placed one of my Ross Rs on the roof of my van. We got in the van drove down the Big Stone Road and 4 hours back to Edmonton. I dropped off 2 of the 3 buddies. I was standing in my last bud’s driveway about midnight, my bud said, “what is that on your roof rack”?- wedged in the corner of the rack was my Ross R.

User avatar
maruoff
Master Guide
Posts: 773
Joined: 01/11/04 19:00

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#7

Post by maruoff »

Dear Bill, I totally feel with you. What a terrible loss. Even more terrible to not even know where it was lost and how! You might have placed it somewhere in the basement and forgot about it.

I am in my low fifties but things are getting steeply downhill, so this could happen to me too.

Mind you just the other day I met with a good friend from Austria who currently fishes our local chalk stream.

He couldnt find his Hardy Golden Featherweight anymore. He had either placed it on the roof of the car and driven off or lost it somewhere else. Just cant remember what happened so this is also considered a loss. Too bad!

Good luck, hopefully it will turn up again!

User avatar
ibookje
Bamboo Fanatic
Posts: 5018
Joined: 12/23/04 19:00
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#8

Post by ibookje »

Ooh, this happens so often!

I must always tell myself not to put my gear on the rooftop of a car when getting ready to go home again...

maruoff wrote:He had either placed it on the roof of the car and driven off

Mike N
Master Guide
Posts: 394
Joined: 11/19/19 00:57
Location: West By God Virginia

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#9

Post by Mike N »

DireWolf53 wrote:
06/04/20 16:52
Bill, What an awful way to part company with a rod. Once or twice I came close to leaving one behind before I learned the windshield trick. Since then I've managed to keep tabs on things.

Forgetfulness happens but dumb is this. After a day dodging stream side stinging nettles and rattlesnakes in the Owens River Gorge I careful packed everything away except for my rod and tube which I had placed on the bumper. Several hours later when we crested Sonora Pass (26% grade) I went around back to pull out the camping gear to discover the rod was still on the bumper! I probably have better odds of winning the lottery than repeating that foolishness.

Coming off the river these days I usually chant rod,reel,vest,waders.
Best post I’ve read here in a while. Thanks

Mike N
Mike N.
Founder, Old Reel Collectors Association (ORCA)
Member, NFLCC & FATC
Vintage Orvis collector


Image

Perry Palin
Master Guide
Posts: 408
Joined: 12/07/12 13:34

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#10

Post by Perry Palin »

I lost a reel with line once. Just couldn't find it. Thought I must have left it on the bumper of the car and it fell off. I bought a replacement. Four years later I was cleaning out the car to trade it in and I found the reel under the driver's seat. I also found two boxes of about 300 flies under there, and I recognized the flies as ones I had tied, but I didn't recognize the boxes, and I never missed the flies. Getting older, it isn't easy to be be me.

Nowadays I use the windshield strategy for my rods and reels, and they are the last things to go into the car at the end of the fishing day.

snorider
Bamboo Fanatic
Posts: 3679
Joined: 04/04/13 10:20
Location: Southwest Montana

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#11

Post by snorider »

No cane yet, but I did leave a very nice 7' glass rod, in a tube, on a picnic table at the beartrap picnic area out on the Madison. I had the 86' mercedes and the linkage fell off the tranny when a rock hit it. Had to unload to get to the jack, got "everything" packed back up and left. And the rest is history. Someone got a heck of a nice 7' 4wt out of that deal.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. T.R.

User avatar
AK Troutbum
Guide
Posts: 190
Joined: 12/10/16 12:12
Location: Chugiak, AK

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#12

Post by AK Troutbum »

So not nearly as sad as your story, but here goes. The first rod I ever put together, a 9’ 5wt. Sage, back in the late ‘80, was my absolute favorite rod (this was before I discovered bamboo). So, a buddy and I were floating the upper Kenai River one day, in separate boats, and after having lunch on a nice gravel bar, we decided to swap boats for the float down to the next gravel bar. Long story short, his boat was not set up like mine, and my rod did not fit properly like it did in my boat. Somewhere between the two gravel bars the rod slipped out of the boat and was forever lost. I lost the first rod I ever “built”, and a English made Sage reel. My heart was broke, but now, 30 years later, I’m happy to say that, I’m almost over it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mac7x
Master Guide
Posts: 909
Joined: 12/22/04 19:00

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#13

Post by mac7x »

Not a fly rod, but a millennium or so ago, I left an UL spinning rod leaning against a fence while I took off my hippers, then drove away and left it there. It was a Fenwick fiberglass rod that I purchased at the late, lamented Spag's Supply, when I got out of the Army. The guy at the fishing counter looked at me like I had two heads, amazed that anyone would pay $25 for a fish pole. I had fished the rod for several years, but the reel was a brand new Mitchell 408 that I got to fish exactly once.

User avatar
bamboo
Master Guide
Posts: 594
Joined: 11/15/11 19:00
Location: South Coast of Mass./Siesta Key Fla.

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#14

Post by bamboo »

Yes I have. Not that I forgot where I left it. While fishing for Stripers in Wood Hole on the Cape, a big Striper pulled it out of my hand. Orvis Rod & reel. Took a few moments for it all to sink into my brain. Shock ! The last I saw of that rod it was headed to Martha's Vinyard.

bamboo....mike

reelytrout
Master Guide
Posts: 357
Joined: 10/30/09 19:00
Location: Newtown, PA

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#15

Post by reelytrout »

I left a graphite Orvis W/a Marquis 6 on the Colorado River at State Bridge. I was fishing with a new girlfriend and I guess I was in LaLa land. I didn’t notice it was missing until packing for the return flight I discovered the empty rod tube. I still have the tube some 35 years later.

crowebeetle
Bamboo Fanatic
Posts: 1340
Joined: 08/03/13 22:51
Location: Chapel Hill, NC & central Penna

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#16

Post by crowebeetle »

But the real question is "Do you still have the girlfriend?"

reelytrout
Master Guide
Posts: 357
Joined: 10/30/09 19:00
Location: Newtown, PA

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#17

Post by reelytrout »

The girlfriend is history.

Trains&Canes
Guide
Posts: 127
Joined: 06/27/17 18:41

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#18

Post by Trains&Canes »

I left a backpack with 3 nice reels and years of flies, if you know what I mean, on the bank of the Yellowstone shortly after opening day last year. Fortunately, I had a cell phone number and email address on the pack, and a fellow fly fisher contacted me. I was only down in Jackson by then, and drove back to The Park that evening, and met him at Bridge Bay Campground, only one space away from where I had camped for the three previous nights. There are still some great guys out there!!!

Mark

Havana
Sport
Posts: 46
Joined: 08/17/19 13:33
Location: Virginia

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#19

Post by Havana »

I lost a nice little 7' 6" Hardy. Came back from a trip and just couldn't find it. Two years later I was cleaning out our crawlspace and was moving my big Plano multi-rod tube. I heard something rattle, opened it up and, voila!
How I missed that rod while unpacking I'll never understand. ???
Some days I fish, the rest are wasted

Bamboomatt999
Member
Posts: 14
Joined: 05/22/20 11:55

Re: Did you ever just loose a fly rod?

#20

Post by Bamboomatt999 »

I was alone on Wade Lake in Montana in my float tube. It was a beautiful sunny day and the fishing had slowed by mid-morning. I had a brand new Sage 8.5 foot five weight and Lamson reel I was using that day (the bamboo was in the truck). I stopped to crack open a beer and laid the rod across the front of the tube to take a sip. I had failed to reel in my fly so I had about 50 feet of sinking line and a damsel nymph out there when suddenly BAM! A large trout hit my fly and yanked the whole outfit into the lake. So, folks, somewhere out in Wade Lake is a high end Sage outfit if anyone cares to try and retrieve it!😫🤣

Post Reply

Return to “Collecting Bamboo Fly Rods”