GETTING ORGANIZED

By Reg “Chip” Chipman

If you buy a quality fly rod it usually includes a cloth covered metal or plastic tube to protect the rod from damage when not in use. When traveling, transporting the rod in the tube protects it from falling objects and shifting loads, your dog lying on it, or a beer keg rolling over it. Whatever. When you are through fishing, place the rod back in the tube. When you get home you can stick it in a closet and not have to worry about it falling over and getting stepped on or having a heavy object such as a vacuum cleaner placed on it.

I didn’t always adhere to this simple procedure. I have several rods and during the summer I may fish a different place every day, requiring a different rod than the one I may have used the day before. Sometimes I take two rods to the same stream because it is easier to fish certain sections with different rods.

My procedure after finishing for the day was to take the rod apart and lay it in the back of my SUV. I usually left the rods in the car so at the end of several days of fishing I could have three or four rods in the car along with the tubes I took them out of.

Periodically, there would be a day when I would tidy up the vehicle, remove empty milk cartons and cookie boxes, and throw out any cookies that had rolled under the seats. I would remove all the rods and tubes and stick them in a closet. Of course, my bad habit caused a problem. One morning as I left to go fishing I reached into the closet and grabbed the tube for the only rod I would need that day.

When I got to where I was going I open the back of the vehicle and put on my vest and wading shoes, found the reel I would need and opened the tube to get the rod out. The tube was empty. The rod I intended to use was still among the rods I had stuck into the closet a few days before.

 I drove the 18 miles back to the house, stuck my hand into the closet among 8 or 10 pieces of fly rods and grabbed the two pieces of the 8-foot 1 weight rod that I needed and drove back down to the river.

I had wasted a lot of time and was anxious to get fishing. I hurriedly grabbed the two sections of the rod and attempted to connect them. I say “attempted”. They wouldn’t fit!  Bewildered for a second, it soon dawned on me that one section of the rod was a 1-weight and the other section was part of a larger 5-weight rod.

It was still early in the day so I made the round trip once again and returned to the stream with two matching halves of the rod I wanted to use.

So now when I am finished using a rod for the day, I always put it back in its proper tube. Well, almost always.

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