The Rods

I was reading a John Gierach article on fly rods today and it got me to thinking about my past rods and the beginning of the obsession. You might have read about my Walmart Shakespeare fly rod combo in a previous post, so I'll spare you the details.  But, I'll never forget fly fishing for Blue Gill on that little North Eastern Oklahoma creek while the worm chunkers looked on as if I stepped out of an alien craft wielding a 9ft rod.  

A few years later my grandparents bought me a 8.5ft Browning  6wt with an auto reel, which i never got use to and still have in the box. The rod was fantastic compared to the Walmart special and I set out for Colorado on my family vacation, Zero fish caught. The old Browning feel victim to a ceiling fan and lost its tip.  I wrote a letter to the Zebco explaining the tragedy and asked about fixing the tip. A few months later a new Mohawk River 8.5ft 6wt showed up in the mail free of charge. Thank you again Zebco. 

The birth of Ebay brought me a Orvis 9ft 5wt and 8ft 4wt at a third of the cost. In the last 4 years i've been introduced to the folks at Falcon and fish a Falcon 7ft 4wt and 9ft 5wt.  Great Rods and Great People. 

So, if you've been counting i have 5 rods on only fish the Falcons twins.

I suppose i could talk about my reels but there's not much to say, I fish Orvis Battenkill Bar Stock reels with Wonderline Gen. 3.  I love em, they're light and simple.