Paul Hermann's post at The Classic Fly Rod Forum

When I looked down at the shattered rod in my hands my heart sank...I had just destroyed such a thing of beauty. It took me several days after I got home to get up the courage to email and tell Marcelo the tale.... The Golden Salmon was like no other cane rod I had ever had in my hands. It cast like no other. A good fishing friend who lawn cast it just a few weeks before was amazed by the way it cast and plans to contact Marcelo for a rod built with the same taper...This same friend has only used Young para's for salmon for years..I watched him break one just as mine did a few inches above the cork and just at the end of a long battle down threw 1/2 mile of rapids with a 36 pound bright salmon on the Cascepedia 10 years ago...I remember how his emotions were mixed...elation for his biggest fish he ever had on,, mixed with terrible saddness over the what happened to the rod....But he said then,,and still feels the same,,,that the makers of these wonderful masterpieces created them to use...not sit in a display rack.....I know I have always felt the same about my reels...they deserve to be used..That's why I made them......the dings and dents can always be be fixed or rebuilt...I have been blessed to catch many large salmon in my fishing life....The Golden Salmon withstood a lot of pressure ....as anyone on this board who has caught a few bright salmon over 25 pounds in a big high water spring river will surely know....Why the rod chose to break at the end I don't know...perhaps just a bit too much pressure,,.... there comes a time in a fight with this size fish that it needs to be landed or lost ....My hope is that Marcelo will forgive what I did to his masteriece and rebuild this wonderful rod for me.........rm

Again, thank you very much my friend.