oh, snap!

[Woolly Bugger]

The last couple of times I've been fishing on the SoHo, there have been guys fishing with their dogs.
The dogs are standing right there in the middle of the river, chest deep in that cold ass water for
hour and hours. I don't think that's really in the best interest for the dog. Sure they like to get out
and be with you on the river. Be we're wearing wool socks and waders, surely they must be suffering
numb feet. Yesterday there was one dog in the river upstream from me and another guy came in
with two labs. After crossing the river the guy put the dogs up on the bank, that's where I would
want my dog, not in the river all day long. Later, I moved on down to the lower river and the guy
with the one dog moved on down and jumped in upstream from me. At the end of the day, as I was
preparing my apres-fish beer, he came ashore with his dog. After an introduction, I started asking
how the dog handled being it the river. He said that sometimes when it's cold, in the 40s, he'll here
the dog teeth chattering, and makes him get out. The dog was a stray, and has been brought up
fishing with him. I don't know but I would think that a dog with chattering teeth is going to by hypothermic.
Whatcha'll think?

The TVA run water until 10, so there was no need to get to the river early and I planned on
catching the falling water. When I arrived there were at least three anglers standing in the
swollen river waiting for the waters to recede. Plan "B", fish the upper section, no problem
here, plenty of river to fish. BWOs were coming off and the fish were rising. Looked like it
might be a good day of fishing, but the bastards were pretty damn picky. Got a few good
fish to roll on my fly but no hook ups until I trailed an emerger behind the loopwing dry.
I managed to bring a number to hand, but all were on the small size.













Now that the water had fallen on the lower river, I moved on downstream. Things weren't
any easier down there either, although the fish caught were a bit bigger. I managed to get
caught up on a snag and proceeded to bring the line tight to try to roll cast and release the
flies, but then I heard a sickening snap, like stepping on a dry twig, and the tip of the rod fell
forward, dangling from the fly line. I always knew that there was the potential to break a
boo rod, I just always thought it would happen fighting fish or from a fall in the river. I broke
off and reeled in, and waded back up to the car and cracked open a Cold Mountain to drink
while I rigged up a graphite rod. And so it goes.









The sun was beginning to set when I got back on the water, midges were swarming all
over the place and during the last hour of daylight I caught close to a dozen fish all on a #20 zibra.











Venus, Jupiter and the Moon made a brilliant triangle in the sky and I toasted the day with
another stream-chilled Cold Mountain. Despite the warmth of the afternoon sun, the evening
had turned cold, and it felt good to get out of the waders.

[Big J]

Man, bad luck this weekend with us both breaking a rod.  Unforunately yours was a whole lot nicer then mine.  Sorry to see that. 

On a positive note, great day fishwise.  That one brown is a brute.

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Was it the Limestone Special?  If so, I have one in mint condition that I will sell or trade.  Seriously!

[Beetle]

 :(

That sucks Woolly but glad you made a day out of it and caught some fish.

Do you have a 2nd tip?

[benben reincarnated]

Nice report Woolly, killin' it.   bd;0


Sucks about the rod, aren't they repairable though if given to a builder that knows their chit?


As far as the dogs, I say if they are going to be in the water all day and can't stay stream-side, leave em' at home.  I probably wouldn't have been able to manage anything nice to say to the guy if I were in your situation.

[phlyfisher]

 

word.....
0:0

[Holmes]

Wow.. nice fish.

Sucks about the rod, though.

[AL trout bum]

That sucks about the rod. It also sucks that what you consider small fish, I consider good sized.....      Great pics and fish as usual!

[Dougfish]

Nice "small" fish. 
Sucks about the boo. I don't fish with a dog. Hell, I don't listen to myself, why would a dog listen to me?

[Woolly Bugger]

The rod was a Battenkill, singel tip rod, built in 1971, from what I understand, Orvis will, for a price, make a matching tip.

[troutphisher]

Last night when you called on they way home, you said I now belong to the exclusive Mikey club....
I thought for a minute thinking WTF, then it dawned on me....broken boo....shit!

Like I said last night, it sucks but not all is lost. Orvis does a pretty good job of matching the boo sticks.
Mikey's rod was built in the late 50's and they matched the color of the boo perfect on his rod. His rod had two tips, so it was even more critical to match not only the base, but the tips, and they did a great job.

Next time, don't try and land 25lb rocks...just point the tip to the rock and pull back till the line snaps..

Hopefully you'll get it back in time for the Arky bake, that would be the perfect rod for that river.
I plan on making the trip and bringing the standard Battenkill rod, my two tip version.. just incase....
Might fish the Ole 49er too?

I would offer to let you fish one of my spares, but in light of this............I may require a "Break" deposit

[Jfey]

It would feel better breaking a rod on a large fish or trying to traverse some ridiculous blueline.   Mine have been from backcasting into a tree and stepping on one...

Regarding the dogs, one would hope the owner would have more common sense than his dog and that water is damn cold.  At least in the summer the dog could go lay in the sun.

Nice feesh btw

[Woolly Bugger]

Shipping the Battenkill off today, looks like there was some rot going on inside the rod....

Impregnated my ass...



.

[troutphisher]

That does look like something is not right. From what I can tell by the pictures, the darkened area looks like rot, and the glue looks like it broke down? Whats the grayish powder on the inside?

Ask them to call you when they receive the rod, and point out what you see in the picture.
I don't remember what the rod warranty is, but I know it does state verbiage on workmanship.
Maybe you can point to a workmanship issue?

Let me know how it works out, what they say about the break.

[kylemc]

You going to Arky Phish? Cool! I am not taking anything smaller than an 8wt, but you know how I roll. Want to spoon one night?