Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Good Things Come to Those who Wait.

There is irony in the title of this blog post. I'll explain.

I neglected to mention in a previous blog post that during my fishing trip to Michigan where I caught Bass at my Grandmother's house, I snapped my rod.  I've been fishing with spinning gear since, waiting for LL Bean to get back to me on the warranty information.  Well today while I was in the airport coming back from a business trip to Michigan, I spoke with a customer representative and found out that there was no replacement parts for the section of rod I had broke. They were going to have to send me a new one (which is covered under their 100% satisfaction guaranteed warranty, which is a huge plus for buying a LL Bean fly rod outfit.)  The catch....My rod is on backorder till January.

This reality left me in panic mode. As many of you know, we are 4 short days away from RED OCTOBER. In October, the bull redfish migrate inshore following the bait and shrimp that are abundant in the shallower waters as the water begins to cool.  This is an opportunity I do not plan to miss.

After work, I was shopping online for a replacement rod when my girlfriend saw what I was looking at and asked me, "Do you always buy presents this close to your birthday?"  I have been known to do such things in the past causing the headache of having to return the gift.  Nicki didn't want this to be an option.  She quickly told me to put the computer down and follow her.  I asked why and she told me we were going to go get frozen yogurt. We didn't go get frozen yogurt.

I followed her into her house and she pulled from behind the couch a fly rod tube, a box, and a bag and handed it to me.  She informed me that she had to give me my birthday present early to prevent me from ruining her surprise, which I would have done had I purchased one of the rods I was looking at.   In her hand was a 9' 8 wt. 4 piece Orvis Clearwater fly rod, an Orvis Encounter IV fly reel spooled with backing and 3M Saltwater Taper fly line (the good stuff.). 



This is a significant upgrade from the LL Bean outfit and believe me, I'm incredibly excited to test it out.  I'm going tomorrow to get a leader and give it a good round of practice. I cannot wait to go out this weekend and give it a try.

I'm a lucky guy. She got everything about the rod and reel correct. It honestly is the rod I've woke up in the middle of the night fantasizing about since I started fly fishing.  She even got the guy who sold her the fly rod to pitch in a hard cover for the reel for free. I think I'd be smart to keep her around for a while. 

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