Old man winter strikes again...

After a couple of sunny warmer days, I decided to head to the river to check out the conditins.  Sure enough there was a lot of ice, but I fished where I found some open water.  The only areas where the water wasn't locked in ice had fast currents or were really shallow riffles.  In order to fish I had to walk out on the shelf ice, a dangerous venture.  I fell through in a couple of spots.  I was fishing a section of river that I was intimately familure with so I stayed on ice that I knew was over shallow water preventing a real catastrophy.  When I went through the ice, my feet would hit bottom before I was knee deep.  I fished for a few hours with no success.  On the way back to the car, I was walking on some ice that was frozen over a really shallow flat to avoid walking in the snow that was on the river bank since the snow was about 14" deep making it tough to walk through in wading boots.  I had been on the ice all day with no real problems.  Suddenly, my feet were above my head and I was on my ass before I knew what happend.  I landed flat on my back crushing my glassies case in the back of my vest, it litterly just blew up.  I threw my rod to prevent it from being broken by landing on it.  I got off my back, gathered up my rod and moved to the next open hole.  I cast my line out and noticed a stick that must have been hooked by my fly when I fell.  I brought the fly closer for inspection and to remove the stick when I notticed it was not a stick, but the top 8" or so of my rod's tip!  I was out of business.  I packed it in and headed home.  I was devistated by the idea that my rod might be a complete loss.  After all this was my first fly rod, I learned to fly fish with this rod and it had really become an extension of my arm while on the water.  I called White River Fly Shop at the Bass Pro Shop to see if they could fix the rod or if I could buy a new tip section.  Sadly, the answer to both of those questions was no.  My first fly rod was done, it was a complete and total loss.  I had been thinking about upgrading and buying a new rod, now I have no choice in the matter.  The real bummer is that I was hoping to build a "quiver" of rods.  The idea being that I would have differnt length and weight rods for differnt fishing situations.  For example, the rod I broke was a 9 foot, 8 weight rod which is perfect for large mouth bass in ponds or from a boat in a river and for great lakes salmon.  The rod worked well for steelhead , but was not ideal.  I used it for smallmouth and trout, which was complete over kill; but, it worked.  I plan to by a 10 foot, 7 weight rod for steelhead.  This is regarded as the perfect single hand fly rod for steelhead by most ooutfitters and guides.  The extra foot gives the angler much more reach to mend and make long dead drifts and a 7 weight is more fit to the size of the steelhead I'll be fighting with this rod.  I also plan to buy a 9 foot, 5 weight for small mouth bass in the summer which will pull double duty as a good rod for PA trout in the spring.  Eventually, I intend to buy a switch rod too.  Switch rods are a little longer at 11-12 feet and feature a second grip behind the reel seat so the angler can make two handed casts.  The advantage with the switch rod is the added length which allows for a longer reach for nymphing techniques and when combined with the two hand grip allows the angler to spey cast throwing long casts and big flys.  The switch rod is a good fit for bigger rivers like Ohio's Grand River where the angler needs to cover a lot of water.  Now in adition to all the rods I intend to buy, I have to replace my 9 foot, 8 weight too.  I'm going to do it so I have a back up rod, and so the new 8 weight line I bought a few months ago and the reel are not left idel.  This experience has taught me a valuable lesson regarding warranties.  The rod I broke had a 1 year warranty and was about 3 and half years old when I broke it.  I was stuck like chuck.  I have no choice but to buy a new rod.  I want rods that have a life time warranty; that's the way to go.              

Cabin Fever

It's been about a month since the ast time I was able to get out on the river.  After the January thaw we went back into the deep freeze.  The last time I drove over the river it was completely iced over with about a foot of snow covering the ice.  Not what you want to see if you're itching to get out there and hook into some steel.  To scratch the itch, I've gone to a bunch of shows and presentations by local guides hosted by the area's fly shops.  It's fun to see all the new gear and talk to guys who guide in the area.  It not fishing though...  Hopefully we'll start to get into the mid 30's and low 40's sometime soon so the ivers will thaw.  Until then I'll be at home tying flys and dreaming of spring steelhead!!