News from Blue Ribbon Flies

2012 Catalog Entries.
Broken Fly Rods by Gary M. McCown

Photo by Daniel Smith

Broken Fly Rods By Gary M McCown

How many ways can you break a fly rod? I have a drawer full of broken rod tips and a stack of butt sections in the corner of the garage. I save them in case they can be used to repair or replace something else. Broken tent poles? I can remember how most of them got broken, some I can't. Most were accidents. Some were sheer stupidity. I remember reading an empathetic incident by Jimmy Buffett in "A Pirate Looks at Fifty". He was fishing for blues off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in a skiff when a rogue wave caused him to loose his balance and step back onto a rod: "I turned a perfectly good Sage rod into a piece of shit".

The last fly rod I broke was in 2010 but this year is not over. I was walking back down the trail, watching for rattlesnakes, to Bear Trap access on the Madison. I had hung my wet fly in the keeper but the fly apparently came loose and snagged in the willows snapping off the tip. I was unaware until; back at the truck, I started to break down and re-case the rod. I lost a rod tip and a perfectly good partridge and orange. The good news for the klutz was Orvis replaced the rod.

I broke one 9ft 6wt on a gar that muscled his head to the right and exploded graphite into splinters with a riffle shot sound. I hand lined the beast and gloved it into the boat. Now I use an 8wt Winston with a gum rubber shock section in the leader that would hold a tarpon. That works so far.

Hanging back casts into trees on Little River and Abrams Creek in the Smokies snapped a couple more. One, I turned into a dog training tool with some 30lb tippet and a grouse wing. It was strong enough to hold a pointer. The 4wt got some starling feathers and became a delightful torment to my cat. Twice, I poked rod tips into the door frame coming into the garage. Wider doors would have been less expensive.

I broke a 9ft 6wt Fenwick back in the 70's fishing the lower Madison. My fishing partner hooked a large brown below me that ran upstream and he yelled for me to try to "turn" the fish. I succeeded by slapping my rod on the water but I turned it into an 8 1/2ft 7wt bass rod that I still use. I have a good supply of spare tips. One of my new bass rods was totaled by my fishing partner when his dog tag snagged on the line. This spooked him and he made a six foot leap from bow to stern snapping the foolish thing that had scared him. He also had a bad habit of falling nose first out of the boat looking for released fish. That never hurt any rods, just his pride.

My favorite "not me" incident was a trip to fish the Hiwassee with my son and three of his friends. The first sign of a problem was three young men walking "hang dog" across the parking lot with, "You wouldn't happen to have an extra fly rod would you?" They had left their three rods sticking out the back window of the Jeep Wagoneer, the kind that automatically rolls up the electric rear window when you turn the key off. Duh. By some premonition, I loaned the two extra (just in case) rods I brought and took turns with the last guy. We all caught fish and I complemented them on their good start on collecting extra rod tips. Don't ask me how many times I have hooked myself, needed stitches, gotten stitches, lost fly boxes, sun glasses, rods and reels, cameras and assorted other gear in streams and lakes. One learns so much with age and experience! I'm just happy to have a few rods with the appropriate number of sections and plenty of spare parts if needed.