So... how many rods do you own?
Growing up my parents didn't have much money so for a lot of the activities I pursued, I had to earn the money to purchase the gear. It takes an eight year old a while to wash enough cars to buy a fishing rod, especially if there aren't a lot of cars in the neighborhood to begin with. So the things I had were few, but well earned.
Now that I'm a "grown up" I seem to be making up for lost time. I live pretty simply in all areas except in the toy department.
Back in college my mom saw a couple of my fly rods up against the corner and she ask how many of those things did I need. At the time I only had three, which didn't seem like nearly enough, but I didn't tell her that. I just made the observation that golfers don't drive around the golf course with one club sticking out of their bags. For the different situations they run into on the course, they have a club that best handles that scenario.
The same rule applies to fishing. There are a multitude of different fish, different rivers, different approaches, etc.
When I first started fly fishing, I bought a 9 foot 5wt, a typical trout rod work horse. I fished it for a while but didn't have as much fun fishing for the smaller fish that populated the creeks near my house. So I purchased a 3 wt. rod. This was the beginning of the obsession. Just like picking a golf club for the shot, you have you pick a fly rod for the fishing conditions. This made my fishing experience so much better!
Living in southern Oregon, I had to get a steelhead setup so I bought a 9'6" 7wt. For the longest time these 3 rods covered all my basic fly fishing needs. But when I started working in a fly shop, I had access to more rods and started seeing the value of a more specialized rod.
Several years have passed and I'm still adding to my collection. Spey rods, switch rods, Tenkara rods just to name a few. And that's just the graphite collection. I still have glass and bamboo to expand into.
Each rod has a slightly different application and also a different feel.
So yes you can limit it to just one rod... but why?!?!
Richard Templeton
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