Here is one of my all time "Root River Drone" stories. To fully appreciate the meaning of a drone, you would have to have Bob pull up the archives on my post over a year ago.

So here I am fishing on the banks of the Root River in Racine Wisconsin, when this "drone" comes stumbling down the bank with a flyrod in hand, ready to fish a nice little riffle in front of him. There is a guy about every 5 feet, so running flyline and backcasting is a dangerous proposition at best. The shore line all the way up the hill, has brush on it, so there is a pretty good chance of getting hung up with your fly on the back cast.

Old Drone starts to false cast a few times, and in the back of his cast feels resistance. Without looking, he gives about a half dozen tugs, each getting harder than the previous attempt. On the last one, a scream breaks out($@#***FU&^C>K***)on the hillside. There, perched on the hill, hanging on to a now broken fly rod, a limb, and a rock, stands his drone buddy with a size 2 hook pulled sqaurely through the end of his nose. Blood was pouring out of this guys beak like water from a faucet. His fishing buddy is awe struck at the sight, and runs to the assistance of his friend on the hill.

In his rush, he drops his fly rod and reel, and sprints up the hill. Sad part is, that the current is now washing the rod down the river, and the only thing keeping it from getting away, is his friends nose. The guy in the river has changed priorites, and starts grabbing and pulling on the receeding fly line to try and pull his rod up river. At the same time, he is absolutely shredding his buddies nose. One of the guys on the river, grab the rod and walk it up to him. He then heads up the hill to cut the leader. He has no knife, and in order to cut the line short, he bites the hook off near his friends nose. Now it looks like Hannibal Lector making out with his next victim. Just a few minutes later, they bundle up their gear, and head to the Doc for hook removal. Another case for barbless hooks. I saw the hole thing, and was so scared, and laughing so hard, that I almost wet myself. My nose hurts when I fish that part of the river.