One More Travis Tale

So for many of you, an introduction to GFS employee, Dan Gordon, would be redundant - after all, he's been a GFS Shop Rat for a long, long time. It's true, he knows a thing or two about fly gear, but as the observer I can't say that this tops his skill set. He's a hellava angler, no doubt and an awfully friendly guy who would do anything for ya. A devoted husband, father and yep, he is even a grandfather to boot. The guy is solid. Essentially Dan is The Man and much of the goings on around the shop revolves around this humble pie pinnacle of society. What many of you might not know however, is that Dan’s greatest natural ability lay in his creative sense of humor. He has this uncanny ability to create these interesting scenarios among the folks he most cares about. Simply put: Dan is a highly skilled practical joker. In a world where laughs don’t erupt often enough, we owe Dan a clutch of gratitude for making our bellies hurt when we need it most (on a daily basis).

Dan.  When he's not busy plotting

So it was no surprise that Dan had a story about his boss and dear friend, Travis Duddles, which happened something like this:

John Day fishing trip: Travis had loaned his 2 wt fly rod to a friend of the shop and told him he needed it back before the trip. Well, it was returned to the shop the day before the trip and Travis threw it in with the rest of his gear. The first morning of the trip, everyone was loading the boats and getting their rods put together when Travis started taking his rod out of the tube. Somehow the rod tip section was missing. Well, needless to say he was not a happy camper, as he had no backup rod. Tantrum time…He put the rod back in the tube and threw it a good 50 ft. towards his truck while using words that would make a sailor and a logger plush.

Shortly thereafter, I took my rod out of its tube and low and behold there was an extra tip in it that did not belong to my rod. I just looked at it as if it was a miracle!

Then there was the trip where Charlie C. got up one morning and found stirrups, off the doctor’s examination bed, duct taped to the foot pegs of his pontoon boat…