The very first fly rod I ever owned. Telescopic, fibre glass, and packs down to about a foot long. I learnt to fish with this very rod, it’s got a crazy action and totally different to any other rod I’ve ever had, but at the time I didn’t know any different. Caught my very first fish fly-fishing on that rod, with a fly I tied myself, a green beetle with a wool body, but that’s another story.
A good seven years it would have lasted and caught many a fine fish until finally, worn to pieces, she came apart and snapped in two, while landing a nice four-pound rainbow trout. I landed that trout from there like you’d land a fish with a hand line.
I put all that behind me and moved on to a two piece fibre glass rod, and then to where I am now, using a four piece carbon composite. But I never forgot that rod. A few years after she failed I found another one exactly the same in a local hunting and fishing store. It was on special and I had to have it. I took it to the counter and believe it or not the guy didn’t want to sell it to me. In his words, he said, “It’s not worth buying it mate, it’s got a rubbish action and it’s real hard to use.” So I explained my situation, but he still wasn’t keen on making the sale. He could however see I was determined so we got down to negotiations, but not in the normal sense of bartering as we know it.
No, in the course of the conversation he actually decided that if I was determined to have it he would give it to me, but for the purpose of book keeping he had to get something for it. So we halved the special price, took off a little more, and I scored it for the twenty bucks I had in my pocket at the time.
Don’t know where that second rod is now, or what even happened to it, but I do know I caught a lot of fish on it.