Rod swap

Two years ago at SRG David, and I and Rick C. decided to do a rod swap between the 3 of us. Amongst the larger group of rodmakers (which features more nice guys than any social group I've ever been in), I enjoy the company of David and Rick more than most. So I was very happy to be swapping rods with them. The rules were: 2/1 rods, just a rod you'd make for yourself (no engraving or any of that stuff), and hopefully something that the receiver would appreciate. Plans were to swap at the following CRR in July, or if later, at SRG, a year away. I think I was the first one done, with a Martha Marie's Perfectionist.

Here it is:

Well, as it sometimes happens, life got in the way, and CRR went by, then SRG went by, then the second CRR went by. And the laggard started to get maybe a bit of ribbing. Not to say he didn't have good, valid reasons, but you know, the finished rods were running the risk of crumbling in their cases without ever having been used to catch a fish. Yeah, they were taken out at meets for lawn casting, and they got a pretty good workout in some cases, but they had never seen the water.

At this last SRG, the third and final rod was ready, and we did our swap, under the only sun of that rainy weekend. Here are the happy swappers (Rick, David, me):
Rick got a Payne 98, I got a Dickerson 6611, and David got the Perfectionist. Personally, I intend to break in my 6611 on my favorite creek, Verdigre in NE.

Happy campers, swap finally done, time to go fishing.

...Hold on there pardner, not quite yet.

Driving home on I-29, north of KC, I get a call from David:

He stopped Sunday on the Norfolk on the way home, and in the middle of a cast, the rod I made for him broke clean off, just above the ferrule. It had been done for a year and a half, cast by many people, no problem, and then his first time out, it snaps right off. And they were 2/1 rods, remember? All I could say was "The gods have a perverse sense of humor." David graciously asked me to send some thread, and he would re-mount the ferrule, the tip would only be 1-1/2 inches short. I insisted on making a new tip, so David mailed the rod back to me, and this winter I made a replacement tip, so David now has a 2/2, with one tip slightly down.

So now, our swap is finally over, and I feel confident writing about it.

Of course, I haven't fished my 6611 yet, and the gods may not have satisfied their appetite for sardonic humor, so...

Lee