I’ve finally ended the chaos of fishing. I bought myself a rooftop fly rod carrier.
Satisfying my “need” to end this chaos might be considered dramatic in conventional circles. I can say this much — not breaking down my setup after every fishing trip, then re-rigging the next time on the water is the mildest of inconveniences. I’ve just finished fishing or I’m about to be fishing at either end of this great imposition on my free time, so really, do I have anything to complain about?
Well, no, but I’m not complaining. I’m celebrating. I won’t have to do this anymore.
The YouTuber “Huge Fly Fisherman” does a fine job making fun of fly fishers of all types, but I don’t recommend following his advice. I watch for laughs, knowing that at times guys like me are the target of his sarcasm. For instance, he mocks anyone who isn’t a guide yet still drives around town with a rooftop rod carrier.
I get his point, but there are times when I’m fishing every day and the ease of keeping my rod rigged up, while locked and secure, is worth the cost of a rod carrier.
Case in point. When I was teaching in Wyoming we fished a lot from January through March, so long as the temperature was in the mid-20s or warmer. Often, we’d fish both days on the weekends, and often a day or two during the week. We were fishing a tailwater, nymphing with multiple flies, split-shot and bobbers.
I lived about 20 miles away and cutting off that rig each day and retying would have been a hassle, so I didn’t. I also didn’t have any good rod-transportation options, so I lodged my fly rod diagonally inside my full-size, super-crew pickup truck. The reel end rested on the driver’s-side, rear back seat, next to the head rest, while the tip of the rod bent awkwardly against the windshield, the rod resting on the dashboard in the opposite corner.
I never broke a rod tip, but if I had, I deserved it.
These days I don’t get to fish that often, most of the time. But in the spring for a month or two I will fly fish for carp and bass nearly every day at a lake in town. I returned to my “rod bent against the windshield” method at first but downsized to a smaller truck a few years back, and the bend it would take to keep a 9-foot fly rod in the cab was more than I could stomach. Instead, I used an NRS strap to make a loop that hung from the grab handle of the passenger side door. I ran the rod tip through that loop and then through the open window. The tip rested on the side mirror.
The lake is less than 10 minutes from the house so it’s not the worst solution, but that rod tip out there vibrating in the wind makes me anxious, and I still have to take it out of the truck and stash it in the garage when I’m home.
Anyone who has tried it, knows that leaving the rod rigged up while breaking it down into two pieces is a form of line-tangling chaos that’s not worth the bother.
If I drove a full-size SUV, I probably could have rigged up an interior, roof-bottom rack for my fly rods, but I’m also a bird hunter and I live in fear I’ll be 75 miles from home when my dog has a run in with a skunk, thus ruining my vehicle’s interior getting the stinker home.
Once I turn in final grades, I’ll get that rooftop rod carrier mounted and give it a good test. I’ll let you know how I like it.
It has to be better than bending my fly rod in dangerous S-curves against the windshield.