The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 05.10.2024
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
Have you ever seen those signs on pubs that say Free Beer Tomorrow? I was thinking that a nice parallel for a person might be Going Fishing Tomorrow, but then I wondered if that would mean you actually never went fishing, just like there’s actually never any free beer? So then I thought that the best equivalent is Went Fishing Today, which would certainly mean you fished but is also in the past, already happened. Is Fishing is the best sign, I think. And that’s going to be mine, this weekend. I hope the same for you.
Cheers,
Jesse
The Lower 48
As a boy, while on road trips with my parents, I was keenly aware of the states that we drove through. This habit continued through my thirties until I eventually passed through all of the Lower 48.
An Artist
Somewhere along the way, I crossed paths and became friends with angler, artist, educator, and fellow Mainer Bri Dostie. Bri’s work is a mix of all these elements, building and fostering inclusive and positive fly fishing communities. As example, Bri founded the Confluence Collective, which organizes annual fishing adventures across the country and makes sure that there’s ‘a place for every body on the water’. Her art is a confluence of mediums and subjects, especially her “Birds with Flies”. Read more about Bri in this story we did together and check out her work on her website.
An Old Book
I do not remember when and where I first came across The Curis Creek Manifesto by Sheridan Anderson but I do know that it only took a single sentence before I was taken by it: “The major difficulty with most how-to fishing books is that of trying to figure out what the author is talking about…” That such a book even exists makes me love fly fishing even more: part comic-book, part poetry, part art gallery, part instructional, I know of no other how-to book like it. Writer on the Fly Brett Tallman wrote and read about it on our recent tour and you can see his article on The Flyfish Journal’s site, which includes some tremendous backstories and anecdotes on Anderson and the book’s origins.
A Challenge
In the general spirit of my Lower 48 project, here’s a really cool checklist-style outdoor adventure - the Western Native Trout Challenge. The premise is simple: catch, photograph, and release various numbers of native trout species across various numbers of western states. All the while, funds and awareness are raised to protect, restore, and recover the native species. This project has been around for a five years now and a good number of folks have completed the different levels. Check out their media page for links to a bunch of great stories on the people who’ve completed the challenges. I’m signing up (again).
A Place
Fly fishing has a way of connecting you with the right people; people who, while once strangers, soon become important and impactful people in your life. Chris Keeley, the owner of Anglers All in Denver, is one of those people for me. He took over Anglers All in 2009 and since then has constantly updated and upgraded his retail operation while also being a positive influence on the industry in general. There’s always something going on and something in the works at Anglers All and their new Boathouse is the perfect example, evolving the fly shop experience while at the same time setting an example of a conservation-minded approach to doing business. The Boathouse is totally self-sufficient, energy-wise, powered off solar panels and even provides power for EV charging stations. Read about it here.
A Thought
But probably my favorite of all our Biz stories was when we were recording Hello Nasty. He was supposed to come down to the studio to do some stuff. He was running a little late and we got a call. “Yo, it’s me… Biz. I’m downstairs in the car, I’ll be right up.” We didn’t see or hear from him for another two years.
~ Adam Horovitz aka Ad-Rock on Biz Markie in Beastie Boys Book
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