Got Enough Gear with You?
The other day, I came across a photo of Harold Gibbs. Don’t know him? Gibbs is widely thought of as the father of striped bass fishing in the Northeast. I wrote an article on him for Fly Fishing in Saltwater in 2007. He was hot and heavy into it way back. In 1943 he caught 300 stripers on a fly rod and convinced Orvis to make what is believed to be the first fly rod ever specifically for the salt. It was a 9 foot bamboo rod to throw a GAF line (9 wt). Famed rod master Wes Jordan built it.
So I’m looking at Harold Gibbs when wham it hits me. What no damn hat? No neck gaiter? What no polarized sunglasses? No foul weather jacket? No fingerless sun gloves? No vest with 38 pockets? No chest pack? No sling pack? No fanny pack? Gibbs where the freak are all your fly boxes back at the house? Where is your stripping basket? Give me a break Harold, a Medalist 1498? Where the hell is your CNC reel machined from solid aircraft grade aluminum? No large arbor, no hermetically sealed ball bearing, and no disc drag? A cane rod, without a fighting butt? Dude, where on earth is your high-modulus, high-performance, super-fast, $1000 rod? You can’t catch fish like that?