There’s a point every September in Maine when you can feel the season beginning to turn. The mornings get cooler, the days get a little shorter, and the first hints of color begin showing up along the edges of the woods.
For a lot of us, that means hiking season is here.
The next several weeks are some of the best of the year to throw on a pack and head into the mountains. Soon enough, northern New England will be covered in red, orange and gold, and there may be no better time to explore the trails, small mountain streams, hidden creeks and backcountry ponds that make this place so special.
And if there might be fish where you're headed, why wouldn't you bring a fly rod?
A Fly Rod Made for the Backpack
That's exactly where our Tumbledown seven-piece fly rod earns its place.
We wanted a rod that didn't force you to choose between packing light and being able to fish. Broken down, the Tumbledown packs to roughly the size of a Nalgene bottle and weighs less than one. It disappears into a daypack without a long rod tube sticking above your head or catching every branch along the trail.
Then you reach the water.
Maybe it's a small mountain creek you've crossed a dozen times but never fished. Maybe you've hiked into a remote pond. Maybe you're climbing Tumbledown itself, where the mountain's famous pond makes carrying a fly rod feel almost mandatory.
Pull the rod from your pack, put seven pieces together, string it up and suddenly a hike becomes something more.
Fall Fishing Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
That's part of what we love about this kind of fishing.
You don't need the drift boat. You don't need three rods rigged and ready. You don't need a truck full of gear.
A small fly box, a reel, a few leaders and tippet, some forceps and a packable rod can be enough.
Fall also brings its own character to Maine's waters. Cooler temperatures begin returning, summer crowds thin out, and the woods start changing almost by the day. It's a chance to slow things down and fish places that sometimes get overlooked during the height of the season.
Sometimes the fishing is great.
Sometimes it isn't.
That's okay.
Because you're standing beside a mountain stream in Maine in October with a fly rod in your hand. There are worse ways to spend a day.
Put It in the Pack
That's really the beauty of the Tumbledown.
You don't necessarily have to leave home planning a fishing trip.
Plan the hike. Bring the rod.
Throw it in your backpack with your water, lunch and extra layer. If you find good water along the way, you're ready. If you don't, you've carried something barely noticeable for the possibility of finding something special.
Over the next several weeks, New England is going to put on one of its best shows of the year. The mountains will change color. The air will cool. The trails will call.
So grab the pack. Lace up the boots. Toss in a fly box.
And make room for a seven-piece fly rod.
You never know what you'll find around the next bend.
Made in Maine, USA. Made to fish.