Did you ever just lose a fly rod?

[joaniebo]

Not about a rod or reel but a couple years ago, I bought a new Orvis Wheatley fly box. One of those black colored boxes with windows on both sides. Decided to fill all the windows with all the little black soft hackles and dry flies that I had tied over several winters.

Was fishing with a friend, unzipped a pocket on my fishing vest and then tied a small Black Magic Spider on the friend's tippet while on the creek bank. Forgot to zip / close the vest pocket and we fished for awhile.

After the fishing was over, we headed back to the campgrounds and once there, I noticed the open vest pocket and no Wheatley fly box in the vest. Drove back to the creek and looked all over the place - no luck. There must have been at least 300+ little black flies in that lost box and someone ended up with a lot of flies and a $100 fly box.

Since then, there are labels with my name, address and phone number on EVERY Wheatley fly box I have and labels are also on EVERY rod tube, just in case I lose one of the rods and an honest folk finds it.

Bob

[DUCKMANNM]

Never lost a fly rod but have had a few stolen out of my vehicle while fishing!

[Expsp4043]

I have never just lost a rod but many years Myself and three friends were hunting rattlesnakes along Cedar Run which is a trib to Pine creek in Pennsylvania. Cedar was fly fishing only and as we were driving along we saw two guys walking along the road. We stopped and asked them what they were looking for and one replied that he had left his bamboo rod on the roof of his car the evening before and they were trying to find it. We wished them luck and headed down the road. All of a sudden my buddy Joe yelled "there it is" and we stopped and picked up the rod. We turned around and took it back to the fellow. He was so grateful he offered us money but we refused so he said that if we would give him a name and address he would send Joe a box full of hand tied flys. We went on our way and had a great day of snake hunting but we never did get that box of flys.

[Clicking Ferrules]

Coming off the river these days I usually chant rod,reel,vest,waders.

.Different country, different language, thats exactly what i do. Even in that order!

[Mister Bill]

I have never lost a rod, but if the subject was breaking a rod, I could drink you under the table.

Same result.

[Bill Moschler]

I of course have spent a lot of time thinking about this rod loss both before and after I posted. I really liked having this rod. I went to Jim Beasleys shop and talked to him. He is sorta of a local legend around here. The rod cast better than any other bamboo I have ever tried. I fished it some, but not a lot. I did carry it on all my trips west and to Alaska and fished it some at each destination. I am sure I did not just take it out of the truck and leave it somewhere since I was really protective about it. My conclusion it that it was lifted from the truck at some point and I did not notice it. Some time during the period I was having truck troubles. It was left in several shops for a couple of days each. I do remember wanting to fish it in July on De-Puy spring creek after that and it was surprised it was not in the truck. I decided that it must be in the trailer and then forgot about it. Maybe at that point I realized it was gone and I could not do anything about it. Caught a 18" plus fish that day on a non bamboo rod. Somebody made a good grab at a period where I was not thinking about fishing that much. I probably will not replace it partially because of the difficulty of finding one and partially because I have a replica Payne 8' that I fish more than I did the Beasley. I am going to upgrade it in my mind from lost to stolen in my mind and move on Hope somebody is at least fishing it wherever it ended up.

[DUCKMANNM]

A friend and I were fishing the Pecos River in New Mexico. We drove 20 miles from the river to the village of Pecos and stopped and had dinner. As we left and came to the first stop sign, his rod came sliding forward from the roof of my Ford Escape, and before I could stop, I ran over it. Now when I go fishing, I make it mandatory that when we get back to the vehicle everyone takes their rod apart and stores it before we do anything else. I still don't know how it stayed on the roof of the car with us driving 20 miles back into town!

[Caneghost]

I lost my 9' 5 weight Orvis HLS which was my big river trout rod years ago on the Deerfield in Mass. I always took down my rod and reel first, but that night a car stopped as soon as I opened my station wagon hatch. it was a couple, lost that didn't speak English very well. Must have spent fifteen minutes or more trying to tell them I wasn't a local and didn't understand them. During that I took off my vest and waders as I was tired from a long day. I had set the rod and reel on the roof rack. You know what happen ed when they finally left. Realized it a couple miles downstream, drove back and looked until dark in the rain. Nothing. Next morning I found about an inch of the rod tip: black thread with a gold accent wrap. The rod and reel assumable bounced on the road and down the mountainside to the river 100 feet below.

Orvis replaced the rod but with a newer stiffer rod I never liked as they discontinued the HLS, in my opinion, the best graphite trout rods they ever built. Glad it wasn't my Grandfather's bamboo that I also had on that trip. Only an old H&I, but it was his, and he was the last fly fisher in the family.

Your loss is especially poignant as Mr. Beasley passed earlier this spring. Condolences.

[Fcs]

I had the tip section of a cheap glass rod escape thru a rust hole in the trunk of my 72 Chevy Nova. Before I had rods worthy of cases. Also an axe. The holes were pretty big.

[red 1]

I have never lost a rod, but if the subject was breaking a rod, I could drink you under the table.

Same result.

+1

[wctc1]

Ah. Me no lose. I have a good friend, who is not given to many drinks, get rather toasted around a campfire some years ago. "Why?"

Well, he pursued the ladies and talked a beauty into trying fly fishing. He took her to the Lewis in SW Washington. After a good day, she was elated at finding the sport, and of course him, to his delight. So he hastily packed his van and off they went! Happiness ---

--- until he found that a good rod with one of his vom Hofe reels was gone, lost. The next day he found crunched bamboo at the site, but no reel.

Some people just don't have the right set of values.

[billems]

On top of being nearly 68 years old, I'm sure that I qualify as the ADHD poster boy. Seriously. It lead it learning disabilities in math, bad grades, etc. I've backed up over a nice graphite a few years back. Lost a Hardy Lightweight somehow. Left a Jenkins at a car wash (Got it back by offering $100 to anyone who finds it--yeah, he "found" it). Left a nice pair of Hodgman Wadell hippers in a ditch. Left fiberglass on the river--this is all to embarrassing--after taking a pee (Yeah, just walked back, not thinking--the real disease), and so on. I could continue, but I'd rather not have a net thrown over me by the state hospital officials. So there.

[Bill M.]

Update: Today I was cleaning and repacking our camper for an upcoming trip. Something was jamming up one of the storage compartments. It turned out to be the Beasley rod tube. It has been "lost" in that compartment for 5 years. We have camped many trips with it "lost" there. But this time I took out the plastic bins and could not get them to go all the way back in. I do not remember how or why the rod got in there.

Happy Day. I am now reunited with my beloved Beasley after 5 years. And even though I am still an idiot I feel a lot better about being an idiot with a fine fly rod now.

The Beasley casts and fishes much better than the 2 lesser Perfectionists I bought trying to "replace" it on the cheap. Jim's tip sections are very live and springy.

[jhuskey]

Great outcome Bill ! Better late than never, as they say.

[MNJoe]

I had the misfortune of losing 2 at the same time last week. Fishing on the Miss for smallies, I rigged a floating line for surface poppers and a sink tip for minnow patterns. We were motoring in a john boat between locations when wind hit the piece of carpet my rods were laying flat on and tossed them into the river. I saw them for a second before they sank. I lost an old Hardy Marquis reel that I've had a lot of memories with and a Ross BG that I was less attached to. My rods were laying back to front and I was in front to level out boat

So what did I do? I went fishing and picked up spinning rod from my fishing partner. Better than moping all day

MNJoe

[Flyman615]

No, but I found a graphite rod & reel on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park years ago. Brought it home, cleaned it up, replaced the tip top and sold it at our FFF swap meet.

Scott Z.

[Taupo Tiger]

I have never lost a rod, but if the subject was breaking a rod, I could drink you under the table.
Same result.

Aha, I was out fishing with a mate and he put his Orvis Spring Creek gently onto the other side of the wire fence, climbed over and stood on it. The snap of the rod was overshadowed by his screams.

[red 1]

Update: Today I was cleaning and repacking our camper for an upcoming trip. Something was jamming up one of the storage compartments. It turned out to be the Beasley rod tube. It has been "lost" in that compartment for 5 years. We have camped many trips with it "lost" there. But this time I took out the plastic bins and could not get them to go all the way back in. I do not remember how or why the rod got in there.

Happy Day. I am now reunited with my beloved Beasley after 5 years. And even though I am still an idiot I feel a lot better about being an idiot with a fine fly rod now

The Beasley casts and fishes much better than the 2 lesser Perfectionists I bought trying to "replace" it on the cheap. Jim's tip sections are very live and springy.

What a great find! Congrats.

[flyslinger]

Not a rod, but I lost a brand new pair of Onos bifocal polarized sunglasses that were in their black glasses case in October of last year. I didn't even know that it was missing until I was packing for a June fishing trip this year.

I looked high and low, went through all of my bags, drawers, packs, and my families vehicles. I figured that I had left them in a golf cart one day when golfing with my son. I couldn't believe I had lost them, but I did. It was either that, or I had left them in my truck when it was in the shop and someone had taken them.

Knowing that I needed them for the June trip, I ordered another pair, and received them before going to the cabin to fish.

After a week of fishing, I began to pack things for the trip home. I picked up one of the large black storage bins that I put outdoor cooking stuff in for the ride home in the back of my pick up truck, and heard a rattle. I looked down and there was my black glasses case, nearly invisible in the bottom of the black plastic storage container.

How they got there, I'll never know. I always put my glasses in my ruck sack or a bigger Abel fishing bag for the journey. I suppose I had them in my hand with some other stuff that was going in the container, and I just let them go with the other items while putting them away last October.

While I was convinced that they had been lost or stolen, they were just hiding away in a place they never should have been. I hope you find your rod the same way. Good luck.

[mrampant]

Bill started this post over two years ago and at the time I thought "Yeah; This has happened to me." I have lost a 8 wt setup by leaving it on the roof instead of putting it in the roof top holder.
But this next thing I thought would never happen; Three weeks ago the club I'm in asked me to do a talk about building rods. As it is a saltwater club most use graphite rods or glass. In the preparation I pulled out some rods with different types of handles and wrappings etc. I grabbed one rod bag and pulled out a glass rod with a "pistol grip". Panic set in and I thought that this was someone's rod that I was supposed to repair; Checking it over there was no sign of damage or repair. I still don't remember buying this rod.
Cheers,
Mark