BOISE, Idaho — Last week Derrick Hicks was fishing on the Boise River when he spotted some fly line floating mysteriously in the water. He started pulling on the line with the simple hope of cleaning up the river but when he got to the end of the line— he held a complete fly rod & reel in his hands.
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"Man someone had a bummer of a day. I wonder if I might be able to find them?" asked Derrick via an Instagram post. "Internet maybe you could do your thing and help me find the rightful owner."
Derrick's social media post quickly went viral (over 6k likes at the time of this writing) and his call was answered. Another fly fisherman, Jonathan White saw the Instagram post and started scrolling through Facebook.
"Then all of a sudden I saw Mike [Rotz's] post saying how he lost his rod on the Boise River," said Jonathan. "So I sent a screenshot to Derrick and that happened to be [the rod]. I was like— oh that is sick."
Mike Rotz is an Air Force veteran who loves to fly fish. Last week he snagged a fly on the other side of the river and while trying to retrieve the lure, he set down his rod by the river. After getting the fly loose, he returned to where he'd laid the rod to find out it was gone.
Mike came back to the Boise River two days later to look for his St. Croix rod and Scientific Angler reel, but after not finding them, Mike thought his fishing setup was gone forever.
"It was just hard to believe— I had given up," said Mike. "I was starting to look through catalogs [to see] what new rod I would buy to replace it, I never did so when I got it back it was just a big surprise and I was really happy."
Mike had the reel for 30 years and the rod for 18. He taught his grandchildren how to fly fish with it and has many special memories fishing this particular setup with family and friends.
"It was so cool and I was so stoked that it worked out," said Derrick. "I couldn’t believe it and it turned out to be such a special rod."
I met up with the three anglers on the Boise River as the missing rod has resulted in some newfound friendships. Wading out together Mike, Derrick, and Jonathan are now sharing something they all love— catching fish.
"There are a lot of good people here," said Mike about the Boise fly fishing community. "For someone to pull a rod out and find out who owns it and give it back— that's great."
Derrick Hicks does a weekly newsletter called Tight Fly Lines and that's also the name of his Instagram page. To check it out click here.
