Nature's Rod Holder

About twelve years ago, my neighbor and fishing buddy introduced me to this site, and I have been fishing here ever since. We had a routine. After gearing up, everyone would look at their watches, and agree on a time to return to the truck for lunch. Brian would always included me and Neal in these fishing outings. After Brian retired from fishing, Neal and I continued the tradition, and I would bring other fishing buddies to the site from time to time...mostly Rich, Steve, and my brother, Robert.

One thing I've always done through the years is hang my rod on a sawed-off tree limb, during lunch, and breaks. I've hung a lot of rods there, because, well, I've fished there often in my retirement years. Plan to continue to do so too. This stream section is pretty low risk for damaging fly fishing gear. So, most of rods that have been rested on nature's rod holder tend to be the kind of classics seen in classic tackle stores. 

When I began fishing here with Brian, we caught mostly stocked Rainbow Trout. An occasional Brown Trout would hit the bottom of our net, and on a rare hook-set, a Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout would give us a tight line. These days, it's only Brown Trout that swim in this particular area. I do believe the Brown Trout have taken over Rainy Mountain. We now have to hike deep into back country to find any wild Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout. Yeah, I don't do much deep hiking anymore...I'm more into easy access these days. 

Some may wonder what fly rod I have hanging on Nature's Rod Holder in the photo above. Well, it's a Winston IM6 6'6" 2wt fly rod, with a Winston Perfect 2 7/8” fly reel. They are a nice example of what I call classic fly tackle.