So your fly rod put you on eBay?

Most of us develop a close attachment with a favourite rod. Have you ever wondered how your rod feels about you?

A version of my essay can also be read here: The Drake Magazine

There is an opaque Irish notion that humans can exchange atoms with inanimate objects. This usually boosts one at the expense of the other. And it happens almost imperceptibly slowly.

My fellow Irishman, the novelist-satirist Flann O’Brien*, wrote about this transfer between policemen and the…