John Berry
(870) 435-2169
[email protected]www.berrybrothersguides.comI recently managed to lose my favorite fly rod. This is the rod that has been my primary fishing tool for over twenty years. It is the one that I kept in a double rod case with my wife, Lori’s, favorite fly rod by the front door, so that I could easily grab it on the way out to the river. It is a Sage 490 LL (four weight, nine foot Light Line).
It was a nice light rod with a sensitive tip to protect the light tippets that I use for the tiny flies that we fish so much around here. I could not tell you how many fish I have caught on it over the years. This rod has not been manufactured for over ten years and cannot be replaced.
As if that were not enough, there was an Orvis CFO 123 reel on the rod. This particular reel is also a personal favorite. The reel was manufactured in England by Hardy for Orvis and was based on an original design by Lee Wulff. It was light, had an adjustable drag and was a perfect match for the Light Line rod. It also has not been produced for several years and is irreplaceable. Of course, it had an expensive fly line on it. Using this rod and reel, I landed a twenty inch brown just two days ago.
How did I lose this rod and reel? Well it is the usual story.
My yellow lab, Ellie, and I were fishing at Rim Shoals the other day. It was a chilly miserable rainy day with some pretty nasty wind. Earlier in the day I had fished with Ellie at the Narrows. Fishing had been slow and the water came up much quicker than the prediction had indicated.
I was eager to try something else. We drove over to Rim. As we walked to the river I thought the water was a bit higher than it should be considering it had been thirteen and a half hours since the water had initially been turned off. It should have dropped out by then. I surmised that the rain was dumping a lot of water in the river.
None the less, I waded across the top riffle. There were several anglers around but I was the only one willing to make the wade. It turned out to be a bit sportier than I bargained for. I was glad that I had my wading staff with me. Ellie had no trouble and swam it easily. I walked down the island to a favorite spot. I fished for a couple of hours and picked up a couple of fish. The water was not dropping out. I decided to walk back to the top of the island and try it there. The rain kicked up and I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. Ellie is a bit storm phobic.
I decided it was time to go. The wade back was a bit tougher. I think the water was even higher than before. With the rain coming down it was no fun.
I made it across and ran into my neighbor Mike. He had watched me cross and had been a bit concerned. He was ready to fish but I was ready to go. I walked to my car and put my rod on the roof. I loaded Ellie into the back seat by tempting her with a dog biscuit. I stripped of my rain jacket and hopped in the car and drove home. When I was unloading my gear, I noted that my rod was missing. I had left it on the roof of my car. I immediately drove back to Rim. I checked the parking lot and drove the road in carefully to see if I could locate the rod. I checked with Gary Flipin at Rim Shoals Trout Dock to see if anyone had spotted it. No one had. Dejected I returned home.
A few minutes later, I once again returned to Rim Shoals. This time, another neighbor, Jeff, accompanied me. We walked the road for several miles, to see if we could locate the rod. We found nothing except for a few beer cans and a bunch of rocks.
I had committed the ultimate rookie mistake, leaving my rod on top of the car. This is not my first trip to the rodeo. In 1989, I was fishing near Sulphur Caldron on the Yellowstone River and did the exact same thing. On that occasion, I watched in the rear view mirror in horror as the rod bounced on the highway a couple times before being run over by a pick up truck.
I was lucky, in that, I was able to recover the pieces and return them to Sage to have the rod repaired under the lifetime warranty. By the way, this rod was a nine foot six weight RPL that I put into a ceiling fan a week after I got it back from Sage.
A couple of people suggested that I post the lost rod on the fly fishing forum, flyfishingarkansas.com. I did and went off to sulk. The next day I received an email from a friend that said that he had read the forum and had seen a posting from a guide from Fayetteville that had found a nice rod at Rim Shoals. I followed up and finally talked on the phone with Todd Moncrieff, a guide at McLellans Fly Shop. He had found my rod. It now had a broken tip but I knew that I could have it repaired easily. I was ecstatic with the prospect of getting it back. Thanks Todd you made my day! Sometimes things just work out.
