Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Starting out a new blog in 2008
I’m not sure why Fly Fishing catalogs come on in January, is it the start of the year? Or perhaps their target is winter bound fishermen. I get the usual ones, LL Bean, Orvis, Hook & Hackle, Madison River, Kauffman’s and The Fly Shop. This year the Fly Shop catalog spoke to me. Not only was it filled with all the latest gear and gadgets, but also contained trip planning information to exotic destinations as well as guiding on the local Northern California streams.
I started spending money as quick as I could turn the pages and I thought of how confusing and expensive this sport must appear to the neophyte. With Z-axis, BIIX and Zero Gravity rod, it’s as the fly fishing industry has somehow defied the laws of nature. Reel like the Able Super Series with abstract fish graphics anodized onto the reel. And the trips! My god, forget about Alaska, we’re talking Kamchatka, New Zeeland and Argentina! Four, five, six and seven thousand dollar trips! Trips of a lifetime or a lifetime of trips. Zingers, nets, nippers, waders, vests and boots, hats, sunglasses, rods and reels, fly line, leader and tippet, not to mention fly boxes and flies. The fly shop catalog has 23 pages of flies!!!
So far in one afternoon I’ve spent over $35, 000. Of course I didn’t really even spend a dime, because I have acquired all the stuff I need over the years and don’t feel the need to upgrade to the latest graphite technology. Maybe that’s a nice way of saying I’m becoming an old fart, who fishes with antique bamboo rods and a vest that is falling apart at the seams and a pair of waders that are so old that when I sent them back for new booties, they tried to talk me out of spending the money of them because “there come a time in a product’s life where in ends!”, yeah, and I said well it ain’t now, just put the new booties on them and I’ll wear them for another 10 years.
