“Why I deserve to win a Hook & Hackle Rod Building Kit” – A Taco Eulogy

A good friend of mine by the name of Owl Jones, (you can find him at owljones.com and his blog: Fishing The Southern Blue Ridge) is hosting this amazing fly pole give-away over on his blog from the great fly fishing company Hook and Hackle (Hook & Hack). So the question was why do I personally deserve the pole, so let me tell ya why ;)

As my close friends from the BlueRidgeTroutBums.com all know, I’m what they call “The Noob”. I’ve spent the last 23+ years fishing with my father side by side and having some amazing adventures while doing so. Till this day I fish with the same poles that we fished with while I was growing up, and I’ve never imagined ever getting rid of them. See my father passed away due to a service related injury on the USS Nimitz. Ever since his passing I find my poles and fishing gear to be that special thing to hand down to my kids. Dad and I shared the same gear with each other every season, if it broke, he would fix it, so there was never a real reason to buy anything new. Not that we couldn’t but it just made things more special.

A few weeks before he passed away my dad went trout fishing in the North Georgia mountains. He called me the day after bragging about catching all these huge fish, because at this time, I hadn’t been able to fish with him as much as I had liked. Honestly my life and career had picked up, he retired, and sadly there wasn’t much time to fish. Sadly July 28th 2007, my dad passed away.

I’ve regretted every day not taking the day off, and going out to the creek and catching fish with him like the old days. So 2 days after his burial, I went trout fishing and caught ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I stood there knee-deep in the Pigeon River, laughing at myself because I knew he had something to do with it. I made a promise to never take things for granted when I have kids and to show them the amazing sport of fishing and the love of fly fishing that I’ve always had.

While there’s an unfathomable amount of fly fisherman, most that have more gear than they could ever imagine, I’ve kept only the necessities. I want to build a personal relationship with this amazing sport and hobby that most can’t imagine. I’d personally love to have the chance to build this amazing rod, not just for personal use, but to do as my dad did with me: Have something very special to give to my kids one day. What would be better than a rod I built with my own two hands? This rod wouldn’t be the one bought off the store shelves surrounded by the masses of other rods just like it. This rod would have my heart and soul in it.

As pages in my life have turned and experiences have directed my life’s sailboat into the direction I’m going, I feel this would be a great opportunity to hand build a rod and learn more about our amazing sport, but also create a master piece for my family to cherish after I’m gone.

So I’ve spilled the beans so to speak, and have put it all out there.

I wanted to also say that I’ve only heard amazing things about Hook and Hackle (Hook & Hack). They do have an amazing selection and some great prices. Please stop by their site and give them a look around.