okay easy bug fix
guys when you beat chapter 1 back out and do the first three challenges, the second one is tricky, but send geodude and when he gets to the tree send pidgey, if timed right you can do this twice and get the rod.. once you do the three first challenges, back out to the sub-menu, with story mode chall. etc. and save your game twice in a row.. then the bug shouldn't happen... hope this helps everyone enjoy this awesome game!!!
Duces :)