1. Troutnut Forum
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2. Fly Fishing
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3. learn from my mistake!

I hiked down into the Neversink gorge today, probably about 1.5 or 2 miles, and when I went to rig up I noticed my rod tip was gone. I guess if you are going off the trail its probably better to pre -rig... the leader gets caught in the branches sometimes but it might save you a lost tip.

That sucks. You may want to consider changing your signature line - I think you've got a ghost problem.

-Shawn

P.S. I have a similar story (but without all the hiking). My brother and I drove a good ways to fish some water we'd never fished. As we were standing by the car rigging up, I pulled my leader through the last guide, with very little tension mind you, and my rod tip just snapped like a twig. My brother just laughed his butt off at me (of course), and proceeded to catch fish after fish while I watched him. I finally decided to try to fish with the broken rod, but the 4 inches of tip protruding from what was now the last guide caused the line to catch on the rod with every false cast. What paltry casts I could manage did nothing to keep the fish from laughing at me as well. What a whipping. I do not recommend fishing this way.

McJames, I did that trick once myself, when starting out fly fishing. I was able to find the tip by backtracking, but it made me never hike with a unrigged rod again. Even worse, I left a brand new Scott fly rod on my brother-in-law's truck years ago. Had I even been able to find a smashed tip, the Scott company would have replaced it, but I never found anything when I returned the next day. Oh, yes, I left a loaded vest on my cartop once, and drove away. That took months to get over, and I'm still irritated with myself and with whoever found it. Yes, I never recovered it, despite having my name and phone number on each fly box in it. So, it could be worse. Still I'm sorry to hear of your frustrating trip. But you're not alone by any means. Most fly fishermen I know have similar stories. Do check the rod warranty; many manufacturers will replace a tip for little or nothing these days.

I was on the Salmon River in Pulaski this January. It was about 7am and the sun had just risen. It was below 0 and I was in nothing but hip boots. My guides began to ice up and I hooked into a steelie and my tip snapped clean off. Along with the tip so did the fish. Instead of leaving for the day I just broke off the extra couple of inches and used my final guide as the tip. May not have casted quite as well but it did not get caught up and I was able to catch a few fish and thankfully Orvis replaced it for free.

Another sad story: I was working at a treatment facility for troubled teenaged boys, and I took a few of the boys on a fishing trip one day. I took my only two flyrods with me, one of which was bequeathed to me by my grandfather when he died. When we got back from the trip, I found that the rod had been closed in the van door by a careless teenager. It was one of those moments where I thankfully displayed more grace than I was feeling inside. That was my hardest moment in flyfishing - every time I used that rod I thought of my grandfather, the best outdoorsman I've ever known. Actually, his being a World War II veteran, I've been thinking about him a lot the past few days. I only hope he'd be glad to know the rod was broken trying to teach a few troubled boys how to fish - he grew up an orphan and was a bit of a troubled boy himself.

I sent the broken tip back to the manufacturer for replacement, and they happily replaced it for a small fee. But when I got the package from them, it had a completely new rod in it. I called them and explained that the butt had sentimental value to me and that I didn't want it replaced, but they told me that the rod had been discontinued and that they had to replace the whole rod because they had no tips that would fit the old butt. If it had only been a few years later, I'm sure I could have found a replacement tip on Ebay. But instead I lost the entire rod, and it eats me up to this very day.

-Shawn