Profit and Loss Statement
I came off the water around Isle du Bois Quail Run Campground beat down from the heat and starving. I had ignored one of the top rules of the great outdoors – “Eat before you’re hungry. Drink before you’re thirsty.” I don’t know who said that first, but by the time I started loading up, I couldn’t see straight, and my vision was tunneling.
And that’s how I left a brand new, as in first time out, Temple Forks Mangrove nine weight with a beautiful new Lamson Waterworks 3.5x Velocity Nickel sitting on the roof and drove off.
By the time I had figured out what happened, I was all the way back to Denton. Still on I35, I turned back and zoomed to the park where the ranger station was already closed. I ran down to the campground circle, walked the road, and it was history as in HIS TO REE. Elapsed time about forty minutes.
It’s hard to know what one’s supposed to take away from a presumptive loss like this, but as many days as I am out … something has to happen – sometime, somewhere. I never write my name on rods or reels, but do on everything else I own, and that’s paid off in the past. Now, it’s time to consider labeling the rest of my gear, including rods and reels. Heck of a deal.
I guess the big takeaway is: Don’t expect anything from anyone else, as in honestly returning something (to authorities), that’s not theirs. And someone else obviously needed a brand new nine weight fly rod and reel. My loss is their profit, and so it goes. That’s the world we live in now. I hope they enjoy it, and learn how to use it well. A fly rod is a nine foot crack pipe after all.
One little tip I will gladly share with you here is that there are great ways of finding lost things that may surface on the internet. Of course I kept some details about this setup secret, but you can also use the power of google to create a unique and regular search using terms that would apply to something like this. You can set up a google search that checks for something every day, and e mails you when something new pops. My terms for this will probably be Lamson and Mangrove because of their unlikely pairing. If those two words show, the google bots will let me know. Try it sometime. It’ll make you think about “The Matrix” in a whole new light.
So with a loss of this quality comes what I call the “penalty box,” which is where I am until further notice. No replacement for this rod or reel is in my near future. I’ll have to make due next week at Port O’Connor with rods other than a new TFO Mangrove 9 weight, and reels other than a new Lamson Velocity 3.5x Nickel.
Category: Culture on the Skids, Equipment, Fly Reel, Fly Rods
Yup. That is great advice. I typically do things completely differently – when my brain’s working. The numbers finally caught up to me though. I do have the 8 weight Mangrove to punish though! So stay tuned for that. I’m still just disappointed in the “human condition” – those that would keep something they find like that fly rod.
Shannon , Bummer for your loss. I was hoping for your report on the TFO Mangrove series. A tip that someone shared with me is when arriving at your vehicle tired and gear laden is to place your rod on the drivers side windshield with the but of the rod under the wiper blade. Do this first ! before you remove a single bit of gear or open a door or tailgate. Then you can break down the rod as a last step before hitting the road. Doing this should prevent the rod from being broken by a tired stumbling angler, a car door or the drive off loss you experienced.
Yup. They are nice to me because I am there all the time. I checked in with them this morning and just now. Nada.
Check back at the ranger station, maybe ?