I recently left a tripod on a trail an hour up a mountain, four hours from home. Unfortunately, I knew exactly where I’d lost it (I’d slid down on a slope on my butt), and I knew the trail was remote enough that no one would have picked it up yet. It bothered me so much that I finally decided to just go back and get the dang thing. It probably cost me half as much as it was worth in gas money but the peace of mind was worth it.

In 2006 I found a box of clearly hand-tied flies on Slough Creek in Yellowstone Park. The flies were all Royal Wulffs in various sizes, not especially professional. Clearly they meant a lot to someone. I have held onto the box and periodically post the ‘found’ notice to various internet sites. I’d love to return it to whoever lost it. If anyone can describe the box itself, I’ll send it right out.

Zach

And along comes bigerrfish from a whole different angle……R

First, did your mother sew your name tag inside them? If so maybe an honest person will find them and return them or perhaps they will read about your loss online and find you that way.

I am going to cross my fingers and hope that there are still a few good Samaritans amongst us. Place an ad in the Statesman, you never know. God works in mysterious ways!

Last summer in the Gila Wilderness…a place where I usually fish for days without seeing anyone outside the campground, at the outpost, or at the visitor center…I grounded my overnight backpack containing 2 fly rods, gps, various other doo-dads, and 2 reels – one of which was my FFB limited edition Project Healing Waters reel (only 50 made) in a totally deserted, isolated area of the National Forest at the edge of the Wilderness and completed camo’d it in an out-of-the-way place. I planned to return the next morning to get it. It was an emergency situation and I needed to move as quickly as possible and had somewhere between 4-6 miles to cover on a fire road before dark to get help.

The next day I went back and there were 2 big rigs of horse trailers camped nearby…a group of fly fishermen. My pack was gone. Talking to them I learned that the group leader was a retired highway patrolman who swore nobody in their party found it and that no one else had been in there since they arrived. But they did have a nice camp dog with them.

I bought that reel for myself as a permanent reminder of all of my wounded soldiers and disabled vets when I resigned as the Southern Region Coordinator for PHWFF. I didn’t even think about it being in the pack when I left it there because I had to go get help for someone who was in trouble. But apparently no good deed goes unpunished.

Sorry to hear about your new waders and pack…uncool. But welcome to the club!

I’ve lost the usual “box of flies” – bent over in a high , fast stream to land a fish and the box slides out of an un-fastened pocket. And more knives than I care to admit. Including an Al Mar last summer. (Damn – I almost forgot about that one). But the worst was a custome made landing net. Beautiful wood, my name engraved in it. I was using a magnetic release, and the lanyard kept getting in the way, so I disconnected it. Wrong move. After a couple of miles on a remote Utah trout stream, it was no where to be found when I reached for it.

No more magnetic releases for me.

Hope they show up. Maybe you know someone who knows someone who can get you a pro-form deal on a replacement pair?

LIZZY