Ever wondered "how'd I end up HERE?!? Here's my story, near as I can figure it...
I recently "retired" - meaning a quit my W2 and just do photography now. When my wife asked me why I was still working, I wondered what else I would do - and "go fishing" was one of the most appealing answers! I grew up on the Ohio River in WV, and growing up a lot of people joked I would probably become a professional fisherman. To me that meant bass boat, and growing up relatively poor that just didn't seem like an option...
Being primarily a warm water fisherman except for fishing for Steelhead a couple years when I lived in Buffalo, when i started thinking about what to fish for January-March this year, trout came up, which led to fly-fishing.
Looking for info on an old fly-rod led me here (and to buying that old unidentifiable rod with a Diawa 731A AND a Diawa Regal Silver 7wt to get started).
I've also added a Reddington Zero 2/3, and I'm currently looking for a budget-friendly 3WT for trout and panfish as I spend a lot of time fishing in PA and WV. I'm considering getting a glass casting rod as well at some point this year as well. I call Pittsburgh, PA home, and plan to fish from my canoe as much as possible.
Reading this forum gave me some insights as to the feeling that's missing from most of my modern rods; the feeling of the rod loading, of rods that could almost double over when fighting a fish! It's that feeling of landing a 20# carp on an old Zebco 33. I remember that rod bending over, and eventually splitting near the handle! We could see through it, but it still landed the fish! And went on fishing for a couple more years until another carp exacted it's revenge after some heavy rain one summer.
We watched in what felt like slow motion as the old '33 launched into the air like a bottle rocket and arced into the Ohio at least 15 feet from shore entering with an almost silent "pffft" of a splash that would have made Greg Louganis envious! I can still vividly recall watching the stream of bubbles rapidly head toward the deeper channel; there was no hope of jumping in to save that trusty little rod....and instead of us having another trophy carp, the carp had it's "fisherman story" to share with his buddies...
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