I've had a rough couple of weeks. It all started on Father's Day. My friend had invited me to go up to Hyalite Reservoir to do some fishing.

I decided to stop by Sportsman's Warehouse to purchase a new rod and reel. Now, when it comes to fishing, I go back and forth between fly fishing and bait casting. If I'm not catching anything on my fly rod, I'll change it up and throw a spinner or something. I'm not picky, I just like to catch fish.

Okay, so back to buying a rod at Sportsman's Warehouse. I decided to buy an ultra light fishing pole and a new reel. I ended up getting a Fenwick ultra light, and a really nice Pflueger reel.

I took it up to Hyalite on Father's Day, and ended up getting skunked, but that was just the beginning of my bad luck.

Last week, my friend and his wife drove to Bozeman to visit. They wanted to do some fishing, so I took them up to Hyalite. My friend's wife didn't have a fishing pole so I let her use my new Fenwick. Within 20 minutes she got a snag and was attempting to get it loose when she snapped my brand new fishing pole in half. Fortunately, she was still holding the half with the reel on it in her hand.

Due to Sportsman's Warehouse' return policy, I was able to exchange the pole for a new one since it was within 30 days since I had purchased it.

I exchanged it on Saturday morning before heading to the Yellowstone River with some friends for a float. There were three of us. My friend, his uncle, and myself.

In addition to fishing, we all are rock hounds. We like walking along the rock bars on the Yellowstone River searching for petrified wood, and other interesting artifacts.

Our trip was going great until we were getting back on the raft after walking along one of the various rock bars on the Yellowstone. My friend asked me if I wanted to sit in the back so that we'd each have more room to fish. I handed my friend my fishing pole as I climbed onto the raft. He sat it down and began to push us out into the river. Once we got situated, I asked my friend to hand me my fishing pole.

That's when we noticed that it was gone. Somewhere in the process of getting back on the river, it was knocked off the boat. We searched and searched, but to no avail. My brand new fishing pole was at the bottom of the Yellowstone River.

I had exchanged my broken pole for that one earlier that same day. I went through two brand new fishing poles within the course of two weeks. My friend's wife broke the first one, and my friend knocked the second on of the boat.

The lesson here. DON'T let your friends use your fishing poles(or even touch them for that matter). If you plan on going fishing soon, hopefully your luck in a little better than mine.

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