A Stick In The Mud

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"Here's one," I said.

That's where the three I cut last year went.

I guess I was afraid my friend would actually go out and buy a walking stick), something my late father would not have believed possible. But, by thumbing through this year's stack of mail-order catalogs, I have determined that you can pay anywhere from $24.95 to $85 for a walking stick or "wading staff,"which is the aquatic version of the same item. The two are largely interchangeable, although if it has a lanyard on it, it's probably a wading staff.

Your basic commercial stick is made of hardwood, usually ash, and has a cord grip. Of course, we're not talking about just any old branch here, not for $24.95.

This is "select" ash wood that is, in some cases, "correctly tapered to eliminate vibrations in heavy current." I am sometimes bothered by those pesky vibrations in heavy current (as much in the legs as in the stick, but then again none of my walking sticks have ever been that correctly tapered. They have always come in whatever haphazard way the tree decided to make them.

The wood business can get a littleeffete at times. One company pointedly does not tell you what kind of wood it uses (the implication of this being that it is cocobolo rather than pine), forgets the cord handle and jacks the price to $39.95. For some unspecified reason, only a limited number of these are'' available.

On the high-tech end is the now-famous Folstaff. This is a wading staff made from sections of aluminum tubing that fit together like tent poles and have an elastic cord running down the middle of them. The staff pops apart and folds up to be carried in a holster on the fish erman's hip. When he feels the need for a stick—unless it's one of those very sudden and surprising needs—he simply unholsters the thing, gives it a wiggle, and it "instantly springs and locks into a sturdy staff."

This is a neat gadget and I like it, in spite of my, usual aversion to space-age outdoor gear, although it's not what I'd call a "stick" in the finest sense of the word.

A.K. uses one of these and swears by it, although at the end of some days I've had to help him pull the sections apart.

If the Folstaff is the ultimate in practicality, the Heritage Bamboo Wading Staff is the ultimate in class. This thing is made from tonkin cane, like a fly rod, and features a "jewel-like polished-brass thumb crotch" and a "distinctive cast-bronze rock gripping tip featuring the classic brush hook."

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