By the time I had inspected the rod, it was time to go home. Actually fishing with the rod would have to wait until the next morning. I was hoping to have a friend along with me so that he could take pictures of me casting with the rod, but I can honestly say that my casting ability leaves much to be desired. I can get the job done for the most part, but it's nothing to take pictures of.

I awoke early and headed out to the neighborhood pond at about 7:15am. It was still quite chilly as I strung the rod with my Hardy Bougle reel and a spool of Airflo 7000Ts Delta Floating WF 4/5 line.

The rod was really fun to cast, and as others have reported, it seemed to be more forgiving of my flubs and mis-timed arm movements than my other rods. What I liked most, though, was the feel of a fish on the end of the line. Within the first four or five casts, I caught my first bass, shown below. It wasn't a big fish by any means, but its fighting power was magnified by the bamboo, giving me a real thrill.

I fished for almost exactly two hours, walking clockwise around the pond, stopping every few steps to cast along the shoreline in front of me. In that time I caught about 20 fish, a few bream, but mostly yearling bass about the same size as the one shown above.

As I mentioned, I won't win any awards for my fly fishing skills, but I felt truly at-one with the sport as I held the cherished histories of Hardy and bamboo in my hand. The highlight of the day (aside from catching fish, of course) was when one of the women who regularly jogs around the path that circumscribes the water stopped dead in her tracks as she passed me and said "fly fishing sure is a gorgeous sport to watch, isn't it?" Yes it is, ma'am, and it feels even more gorgeous than it looks.

Click here for Part VII of the story...