CLAY HENRY: Happy ending for a broken fly rod

This is the story of two matching fly rods, each the prized possession of an old fisherman. It’s how they came together as one. If you fish, you will know this as a happy ending.

First, lets go back to my early days of fly fishing. It was in the late 1990s that I caught the passion for a sport. I got sucked in first with a trip to the Norfork River with Steve Wright, a suite mate in an old Fayetteville law office where we both were publishing magazines or books.

We talked daily about either the Razorbacks or fly fishing. We’d take lunches together on the nearby city square, swapping page proofs. I soon became hooked, as they say.

Steve had written Ozark Trout Tales, the bible for our trout tail waters in north Arkansas. He was working on that book when I took office space next to him. When he presented me with a copy of his book, he signed it, “We will go fishing in 1995.”

I had not fly fished since age 15 but was moving away from golf with intentions of becoming a trout fisherman.

I didn’t own a rod, but soon bought a beginner’s outfit, a $180 rig that included a St. Croix fly rod, reel and fly line. It served me well for about eight years.

It was a six weight for 9-foot rod, a good starting point. You really can do about anything in our area with that rod, including fish for trout or smallmouth bass.

But as I learned more about fly fishing with almost daily trips to Bill Tennison’s Orvis shop in Fayetteville, there was this burning desire to own a top of the line fly rod. Specifically, I wanted an Orvis T3, a rod that retailed for $585, pricey for a man with two daughters in college.

Bill let me test cast the various T3 rods that come in different flexes, lengths and weights. I settled on a gorgeous olive green rod, a 5 weight for 8.5 foot. As I learned everyone says in this sport, it spoke to my core. I added distance and feel, just as Bill predicted.

The price was the problem. Orvis fly rods are expensive. I eventually decided to do it on layaway. Every few months when my fortunes improved in the early days as publisher at Hawgs Illustrated magazine, I’d take $100 to Bill. That started in the late fall and my goal was to have Bill order the rod sometime in the early summer.

When the total owed dipped under $100, I went to see Bill with a wad of cash to complete the deal. He could order that rod. When I walked in, he was grinning from ear to ear. He reached under the counter and handed me a gorgeous olive tube with a new rod.

“It’s paid for,” he said. “One of your friends came in last week so I ordered it. Here is your rod and he said not to tell you his name.”

I knew immediately who did it. I’d started Louis Campbell in fly fishing the previous summer. My coaching buddy loved the sport tremendously. We still fish together. He was on Houston Nutt’s football coaching staff at Arkansas and decided some extra camp money would be used to help his fishing mentor.

Louis denied it for a few weeks, but Bill finally came clean and it was confirmed. Louis had heard me talk about that rod on several fishing trips and beat me to the final payment.

That was my go-to rod for about 10 years and served me well. But as Wright and others heavily into fly fishing had predicted, there would be more rod purchases. I’d need a smaller creek rod for pan fish, a stouter rod for windy days and so on. Don’t ask me to count my rods now. I own classic split cane bamboo rods and have graphite rods from most of the top makers.

Advertisement

Now comes the sad ending for my Orvis T3. It slipped from my rod vault atop my truck, bounced along the road for maybe a mile and the butt section wiggled free and was lost, along with a reel.

Left were the other three sections of the rod, none with a scratch. I learned that the Orvis warranty covers broken sections, but not a lost section. Basically, I was left with nothing. No company keeps parts for a 20-year-old rod.

There was one hope, maybe there was another angler with a T3 that had a broken tip section, the most common issue with old rods. He can’t get that replaced, either. Maybe he’d part with the butt section?

So I wrote a note on a national message board, The Fly Fishing Forum. That was almost two years ago.

There were several offers of help, but none had the right T3, a rod no longer in the Orvis line. The most common flex is a fast action rod and that’s what showed up, or a 9-footer butt section. No one had my exact rod butt section made with a softer action. I forgot about it.

I thought my fortunes had finally changed last month. There was a reply to my post with a similar problem. Paul Dieter had a broken tip section of the same T3 mid flex in the right length. He was on a Colorado trip and was sick about breaking his favorite rod of over two decades.

Here’s the twist; he wanted my tip section. There was no offer of sending the butt section.

“I can make your rod whole, or you can make mine whole,” he wrote.

I decided it’s better to give than to receive. I asked for his Seattle address and shipped all three of my remaining sections the next morning. I didn’t ask for anything in return. I just kept the tube that would be used for a rod that did not come with one.

The sections almost beat him back to Seattle. Immediately, Paul wrote me a wonderful note and a check for $200, something I didn’t ask or expect.

Paul’s glorious one-page thank you note is now framed in my office. He wrote that the tip fits perfectly and he’s “amazed” at his good fortune.

I’m delighted at the outcome, although clearly I’d hoped that I’d be the one getting a tip section for a rod that has much sentimental value. After reading Paul’s letter, the ending was perfect.

Paul wrote about many positive experiences from his time on the on-line fly fishing forum, including finding a rod in Colorado’s Cheesman Canyon and returning it to the owner. I once found a Sage rod and a Galvan reel on an island on the Norfork River and hunted down the owner in Oklahoma City.

“Now this … I break a favorite rod no longer made and that same night locate and arrange for a replacement,” Paul wrote. “Just amazing.”

There was also “hope” that his check was satisfactory reward.

Advertisement

“The value is incalculable in many ways,” he wrote. “It’s certainly less than what a whole new rod was going to cost me. I hope it helps for you to know it will be in a cherished spot in my modest quiver of rods.”

Oh, the letter would have been sufficient payment. You now can spend well over $1,000 for a top end fly rod from Orvis, but they won’t have this kind of history.

There is hope from both of us that we will eventually fish together, probably in Colorado. We both hit many of the same rivers each summer. I’ll make sure that I have a nice rod in that T3 tube that provided a great home for the pieces that Paul now owns.

Who knows, maybe Louis Campbell will join us on that trip? The three of us would fit together perfectly, just like the T3 tip section that went to Paul Dieter.