Tom Chandler, over at the Trout Underground, recently wrote a good post about his annual “Fly Rod O’Rama” spring ritual of getting out all of his rods, rigging them up, and doing a little lawn casting just to get the feel for each of them before the spring trout season really begins.
Initially, you try to limit the madness to one type of rod, but eventually the words “if you like that, you’ll love my XXXX” are heard, and suddenly, you’re casting four and five weights too.
Before it’s over, you’ve got everything from a 60 year-old Phillipson to a two-month-old graphite leaning against the rail – every one of which is loaded with some kind of memory.
Marc and I had to laugh, since it’s a dead-on depiction of our spring ritual too. With us there is usually still some snow on the ground, Izzy the shopdog will be chasing god-knows-what around the yard, and soon we’re double-hauling fly-less leaders into my mother’s rosebushes while the neighbors are looking out the window scratching their heads.
Of course we couldn’t care less what we look like. It’s our own version of spring training and it just feels too fantastic to finally stretch out the casting muscles with some bamboo in hand.
