Fly Rod = Bad Christmas Gift?

Jeff Weltz reminds us that buying someone a fly rod for Christmas might not be such a good idea. I tend to agree with him.

This should go without saying, but many times a well-meaning friend, or sales clerk will put their own personal biases into the equation. If a rod is what you wish to buy the angler on your list, I suggest giving a card along with a note stating your intent, and follow up by taking him or her shopping. The right rod will last a person a lifetime, but the wrong rod will be on the exchange list within six months.

Here is even more advice from the New York Times:

“Bad gifts are what you’ve always wanted, but you give them to someone else,” said Margaret H. Rucker, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who has studied the science of gift giving. “If, for example, you’ve always wanted to go fly-fishing, that doesn’t mean you should give fly-fishing to someone else when clearly they’ve had no interest in it whatsoever.”

This might explain the look on my wife's face last year when she got her new cordless drill.