Last day for the First Rod

Went fishing today on the stocked Tilapia pond near here, along with a
couple of friends and their kids. Beautiful day, willing fish (at
least for one of the kids who was spin casting). I only got one
smaller one on a yellow sulphur, but the real story was in the
equipment I was using.

When I started flyfishing 4 years ago, I bought one of those cheapo
starter kits for $50: with the 3-piece, 7 weight, 9 foot green
fiberglass rod that everyone seems to get from the same manufacturer
and put their own brand on it (mine said 'Shakespeare'). The reel was
some stamped tin Shakespeare jobby, no drag, no removable spool,
stocked with straight taper line and totally inadequate 7x tippet. It
also had come with 6 of the largest, most poorly tied flies you ever
saw. At the time, as you can imagine, I could not cast that beast more
than 10 feet, and my loops were all over the place. Sensing the
problem, I bought a new rod almost immediately and have not used the
green monster since.

Today, just for grins (and to see how my skills had developed), I
decided to fish with the junker rod and reel, still loaded with the
flat taper line, although rigged up with much better tippet, leader
and flies. Imagine my suprise when I discovered that I could now cast
almost as far as I can with my high-quality gear. The biggest
difference was that I didn't have the control: I never got to where I
could lay the fly down on a leaf, but I could get it have a very
smooth presentation 9 casts out of 10. I also did not have the
effective range: I had to get about 25 feet of line out to get a good
cast, and I had to slow my casts down a LOT to get the rod to stop
wobbling on the backcast, but all in all, it was a good indicator of
how much my skills have developed over the past 4 years.

I won't be using that rod again, as I gave it to one of the kids who
showed an interest, but I sure won't be spending tons of money on my
next rod, either!

--riverman

riverman wrote:snipI won't be using that rod again, as I gave it to one of the
kids who
showed an interest

Good use for a rod that you were not going to use again. I think it is time for
me to send a few more rods to the kids up in Maine for their use. I suspect
that most of us have some rods that we are not going to use anymore and perhaps
they could get some kids interested in fly-fishing. We don't have to look too
far to find some interested kids. Our club has been teaching some Boy Scouts to
cast and tie flies for a few years now and it is always a fun time for all.

Big Dale

riverman wrote:snipI won't be using that rod again, as I gave it to one of the
kids who
showed an interest

Good use for a rod that you were not going to use again. I think it is time for
me to send a few more rods to the kids up in Maine for their use. I suspect
that most of us have some rods that we are not going to use anymore and perhaps
they could get some kids interested in fly-fishing. We don't have to look too
far to find some interested kids. Our club has been teaching some Boy Scouts to
cast and tie flies for a few years now and it is always a fun time for all.

Big Dale