Consider it a lesson learned at a discount price. It's good to keep in mind that fishing rods (graphite ones in particular) are an *extremely* good conductor of electricity. You stood a decent chance of living up to your alias. Lightning seeks the path of least resistance, which is not always the highest point. What we see as lightning is actually the return stroke. In simplified terms, at the beginning of a strike, the cloud becomes charged over where it will emerge, and objects on the ground with throw off invisible streams into the air. When the stream makes contact with the charged air particles, watch out! The stream from a graphite rod could be taller than one from a much larger tree. So if there's a thunderstorm going off, don't feel protected by trees, because it may strike a graphite rod first.

When the thunder starts rolling, so do I.

You can find more info here:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/lightning.htm