Adele and Jon
Addie Dunham holds the fly rod her dad, Jon Bardole, made for her when she was 8 years old. Bardole is holding the rod he made for the person who found his daughter’s rod in a pawn shop.
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The gift
Addie Dunham reacts to opening her Christmas present from her dad.
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Special rod comes home for Christmas
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
January 19, 2009
Addie Dunham never told her dad she’d had to pawn the special fly rod he’d given her when she was 8 years old. And her dad – custom rod maker Jon Bardole – never told her he knew.
Bardole had seen the rod in the pawn shop and came back later to buy it back, but it had already sold.
"My only hope was that it was a local who had bought it, and maybe I’d see him on the river," Bardole said.
That was two years ago.
"Being a parent, you have to do things that you don’t want to do," Dunham said. "I’ve had things in the pawn shop before, and they always called me when it was due, and this time they didn’t call me. And when I went down to get it, it was gone."
Dunham was so distraught from losing the rod that she couldn’t bring herself to go fishing without it.
"Honestly, I haven’t been fishing for two years, because I just didn’t want to," she said.
Last summer, Bardole was reading a debate about who makes the best fly rods on an internet forum hosted by Field & Stream magazine. One of the fishermen involved in the discussion said the best rod he’d ever used was a Bardole rod that he picked up "for a song" in a pawn shop in Montana. The only problem with the rod was that it was pink and purple, causing some ribbing from his friends.
Bardole immediately registered for the forum and contacted the rod’s owner. It turned out he was an editor at Field & Stream, living in Oklahoma. He said he had bought the rod during a visit to Libby, and after hearing Bardole’s story he offered to send it back.
"He just wanted to give me the rod," Bardole said. "He said, ‘Let me just send it back to you.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that; let me make you a rod in manly colors.’"
Bardole set about making the man a new rod, using a special blank he had set aside. Meanwhile, the man returned the pink and purple rod to Bardole in time to give it to his daughter for Christmas.
"It was honestly the last thing that I expected," said Dunham, who broke into tears when she unwrapped the present and saw the familiar case. "I’m still blown away."
Dunham said she has always believed everything happens for a reason, and this confirms her belief. Not only did she get her rod back and the Field & Stream editor get a new one – in a masculine shade of blue – her dad’s getting a feature written about his rods in a widely read national magazine, and a maker of fishing videos wants to work with him on an upcoming project.
"The chain of events that has happened, it’s the Lord, all the way, completely," she said.
And Dunham is ready to fish again.
"I can’t wait for this summer," she said. "It’s been so long since I’ve been fishing. I’m so excited."
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Editor’s Note: See the January 13, 2009 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, now on Tuesday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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