Singlebarbed -- the other blog in the Trout Underground's fledgling writer's network -- continues to crank out weird and the wonderful posts, including this little gem about fishing "cheap" tackle when the terrain (or the sudden need to flee) demands it:
I'm fishing in the rural-urban interface, a fancy term that means the city is close to the woods. Come Friday evening I can expect anything from the "high-powered rifle hatch" to the Gang-bangers with a yen for white-meat. All of them will be powered by Jack Daniel's or Budweiser, and it won't matter whether you have to defend yourself or cut and run, that rod is a liability.
My rod is a Fenwick Eagle Graphite 8.6"³ for a 5 weight line. It was the rod I kept for clients to use when their tackle was poor quality, back in my guiding days. It cost $80 new (circa 1990), and throws a nice tight loop. The epoxy is lumpy, the guide trim is painted on, the reel seat is all metal, and it fishes smooth.
What caught my eye was the fly rod itself -- an admirably light and smooth Fenwick Eagle model that I owned briefly, and in a fit of pure stupidity, sold.
It joins a short list of great, cheap fly fishing tackle that -- if it carried the weight of a serious price tag instead of a cheap reel seat -- would probably still be widely praised on the sport's message boards.
So -- in the interest of group participation -- I'm creating the Underground's First Annual "Cheap Fly Gear You Should Have Kept, But Didn't" post.
So Undergrounders -- what's your favorite, most-missed, cheapo gear?
The Underground's Choice
I already mentioned the cheap Fenwick graphite rod above, but the real angst at the dark core of the shadowy underbelly of my fly fishing soul (dark, eh?) revolves around an 8.5' 5wt fly rod by a little-known company called East Branch -- a small custom manufacturer of graphite fly rods that had the misfortune to produce great fly rods instead of high-octane marketing.
It was the sweetest graphite fly rod I ever cast -- so good that it become the only graphite rod that ever broke the stranglehold exerted by my bamboo and fiberglass rods.
I loved it so much, I decided to share the joy and sent it to a friend, who shipped back a check instead of the rod.
Naturally, by the time I got around to ordering another, East Branch had gone the way of all companies not willing to hype their gear with images of grim-faced guides and dark, moody photographs.
(You were probably expecting a bamboo fly rod story, but hell, I haven't sold many of those.)
Of course, every fly fisher has a similar tragedy buried in the back of their gear closet. What's yours?