Fly Rods

I don't collect fly rods. Now Mrs. Anchovy might not agree. She'd say, well if you don't collect them, how come you have so many?

I like fishing small to mid-sized streams best and my go-to rod is a 7 1/2 foot 4/5 bamboo rod made for me by the late Ted Knott, back in 1998. If the weather is really bad or if the brush is really dense, I'll use a graphite rod instead...there's the 8' Scott job I bought in Hamilton Montana one year when I was out there with East Texas Red. It might have been the year Princess Diana died (I'm not sure why I remembered that...). There's also a shorter 4/5 job I bought at Fran Betters' shop in the Adirondacks a number of years ago, built on a Winston blank.

For the Grand, I use a 4 pc 9' Winston 4 wt that was my booty for becoming a lifetime member of Trout Unlimited a couple seasons ago. Sometimes, I'll also break out a 6 wt production bamboo job made by the late George Gherke. I got to know George through a fly fishing newsgroup. It seemed he was having a scrap with just about everybody who contributed to the group. I emailed him and said, hey Mr. Gink, how come everybody hates your guts? We became on-line friends. One day, out of the blue, Mr. Gink sent me this rod as a gift, inscribed to me as "friend". I was really touched by this incredibly generous gesture. We had a plan to fish together in British Columbia that never quite materialized, and then he unexpectedly died. The rod is powerful, yet still has some delicacy and is perfect on mid-sized streams in the mountain west...I always take it when I head out that way.

The way I see it, these rods should do me for years to come. I'm not exactly saying I won't accumulate another one along the way (these things happen) - only that I have what I need for the fishing I like to do.