As a guy who really loves the snowy season and had big plans of snowshoeing in and fishing my favorite holes this year, this winter is absolutely the pits. Where is my snow? A white Christmas? Well, forget about that. What a bummer. And judging from the damage that this odd winter has caused, I feel like a lot of people will share my sentiment. Without a good snow pack, the Moyie will run hot this summer. It was 70+ degrees by early July this last summer, and it ain't going to get much better next year as far as I can tell so far. That biggish Thanksgiving time snow flurry right into warm weather, an atmospheric river (sadly, one I cannot fish), and the ilk has created chaos and havoc on neighboring communities and on our fisheries ecology.

However, it is not like we haven’t had any winters like this before. To this extent? Not for a while, but it has happened. All we can do is hope for a big, late winter with a lot of snow to ease pressure on our fish and on the shoulders of our local firefighters during the upcoming potentially very dry summer. But let us look at the bright side of things.

There will be fishing to be had.

Many symbols in our species' relatively short history on this great planet of ours have been associated with one thing before getting blasted out into another definition, sometimes to the point we cannot associate that symbol with what it once signified. The Dharmic swastika, once a symbol of peace, was reversed by the Nazi party and no matter which way it is flipped these days, no one can see anything other than evil in it. The pentacle, once a positive Pagan sign of life, now has a negative connotation associated with the Christian view of the Devil. The pointy hat called the capirote that Spain used for Catholic processions that once were a symbol of penitence and humility are now the idyllic dunce cap associated with the morons in the Ku Klux Klan. It is sad to see that a group of idiots, and the events that they cause, can change the meaning of something so pure and make it filth.

But the bamboo rod, the finely crafted one that may have only been built by one or two sets of hands--the type that you buy once and cry once as long as you don’t check your bank account multiple times--is something that has typically always been a symbol connected to the wealthy, the ritzy, the rich in the minds of the layman.

But I am going to say something here that I have said many times in my past: fly fishing is as expensive of a sport as a person wants to make it. I have caught as many fish on my cheap beater rods as I have on my more high end rods. I have caught plenty of fish on mass produced eighty cent flies as well as catching them on ones that will run you $2.50-$4.00 from a fly shop (yes, I do understand that quality ties are better in every way possible but my point still stands). For the average trout fishing one could do in our rivers and streams, a $25 used Pfleuger Medalist reel is a good enough fly line holder for it all. I’ve used one from the start, and I still use that same one more than any other reel I have (which I do have quite a few–five of them being Medalists with different line sizes).

If there was anything to spend a little extra money on when it comes to fly fishing, it would be a good line. I am not talking about the $120 lines unless you want to, but a $65 Cortland 444 (in peach, preferably) is a great option that can hang out with the expensive lines and also beats the heck out of any other budget line on the market. But, as I said, fly fishing is as expensive of a sport as a person wants to make it. I started out with a cheap Wetfly combo where the rod was stiff, the reel was cast aluminum and would dent if I looked at it wrong, and the line was no better to cast than dental floss. But I learned to fish on that rod. I learned to cast well with a horrendous line on a broomstick basically. And guess what? I caught fish. I caught a lot of fish. That rod went with me into the alpine lakes, the small creeks, rivers such as the Deschutes and the St. Joe. I caught plenty of fish in each of those places with gear that any seasoned fly fisher would want to believe didn’t exist. Once I upgraded my fly rod to a graphite Orvis Superfine, I was baffled by how much better I could cast with it; how much better I could mend in the seams and turn over flies. I would not have that experience if I didn’t start out on a bona fide piece of crap.

Yet, sometimes I still take out that old combo of mine to re-live my past life. I have replaced the line on the reel with a nicer one, and it works much better than it used to but it is still a stiff and miserable experience. But it catches fish, and I wouldn’t necessarily know that it was a terrible experience to fish with it if I didn’t have the pleasure and ability to cast and purchase other rods and lines.

But that Orvis Superfine of mine, a 4wt seven eleven, a masterpiece of a rod. It was slower than anything I had cast before. It took a while to get a hang of because it took a little longer to fully load the rod. But when it finally clicked, I realized that the slower the rod, the more enjoyment I get out of it. I am out there to be at peace, and a slower casting stroke helps me relax and feel my place in nature. And that realization was the catalyst to my addiction of filling up a corner of a room with rod after rod, leaning mostly towards older fiberglass and bamboo rods. From old Fenwick’s to pre-war bamboo (anywhere from a beautiful casting Goodwin Grainger to a whole load of broomsticks) to wonderful newer S-Glass rods; I have a lot.

However, on the good ol’ eBay I came across an odd rod. It was an eight foot 4wt bamboo rod that looked like it had never been fished. Let me tell you, one doesn’t come across a 4wt or lower bamboo rod too often and they are sought after. The seller was obviously an estate sale re-seller and he didn’t have too much of a handle on how to describe the rod. Yet, he was amazing in the fact that he took pictures of every wrap job, every ferrule, every side of each piece of the rod, the cork and the reel seat, both tips. He may not know what goes into the fly rod but he sure knows how to sell one. The one thing that really stood out to me though was that the only mark that could have signified the maker was a little drawing of a fish, one that a child would do or that you see on a bumper stick with “Jesus” written in the middle. I ended up in a bidding war that finished at around $400, which is a bit absurd for a rod obviously made by a hobby builder and who really knew what the quality of the build itself was. I lost that auction, and I am glad I did.

Two days later, I received an email that the rod was back up for auction. It seemed that the person I was in a bidding war with had canceled his order and it was in the market again. So was I. But this time, I messaged the seller directly and asked if he was possibly interested in a trade to which he replied: “shoot”. Two days later, one of my L & C Imperial bamboo rods and a few antique spinning reels were shipped to him and a week after, I had the mystery rod in my possession. The next day, I slapped a Medalist with a 4wt double taper line on it and took it up the creek with me. Within the first cast, I realized what I had in my possession was a rod worth much, much more than what I had traded.

Lucky me.

Whoever built this rod must have some sort of experience because knew what they were doing. It was a smooth, medium-slow rod that bent deep with a 12” native cutthroat that I fooled to take my #14 hudson caddis. I was in heaven and after a few more fish, I knew that this was my rod. It seemed like it was built just for me, and it is the first rod I have named: Fish. Forever will it be my go-to rod, and with how it ended up in my house, if there is a higher power out there, he made sure that rod landed in my lap.

And guess what? It might have been luck, but I ended up with what I would consider one of those ritzy, (potentially) high cost hand-crafted bamboo fly rods for the price of a extremly reasonable trade-in. Fly fishing is as expensive of a sport as you want to make it, but sometimes it is even cheaper.

Tight lines out there, friends.