The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 08.30.2024
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
I thought we’d made it to fall, but apparently I was wrong. There are still cool waters to be found though - at elevation, in canyons, and in the early morning light. Even thought it may be another month, there’s no stopping the arrival of fall, and fall in the PNW means rain. I can’t wait to see if my raincoat still works.
Cheers,
Jesse
“The Story of Plover”
In remembrance of the great Oregon writer and spirit Brian Doyle.
Originally published in The Drake Magazine.
Proper Flies at a Proper Fly Shop
I think it’s worth noting that the retailers at which all fly fishing tackle can be purchased are named after one, specific category of products - flies. Nowadays it’s easy to tell the great fly shops from the mediocre ones and one major detail that sets apart the former from the latter are those hook-and-material combinations. In my thirty-plus years of fly fishing, I have come across exactly one fly shop whose fly bins are stocked completely by their own in-house tyers: W.W. Doak along the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. Their ties are meticulous, equally at home swung in the water or hung on the wall. Browse their patterns as you would an art gallery, for the two aren’t far apart. And order, if you’re inclined, resting assured that “The flies pictured below are all ‘working models’ taken directly from our regular inventory. Unlike your local fast food outlet, you can be confident that what you order will actually look like the photo.” (Below, the Silver Doctor, the pattern on which I caught my first proper Atlantic salmon.)
Lord Have Mercy…
My affection and appreciation for Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen is well known. He is the musician that I have seen the most, so I guess that makes him my favorite. That he’s also an angler just makes sense. It’s a little hard to make out in the photo, but that’s a custom Collings guitar with a leaping bass on the headstock. And, of course, we all know his classic angling tune, “The Five Pound Bass”, which I just put on my recent fly fishing playlist. For some more about Keen, his fishing, and that song, take a look at this nice, older story, written from the viewpoint of an ESPN professional bass fishing reporter.
Remove It and They Will Come
The latest “largest dam removal project in U.S. history” is nearly complete and a 200-plus mile section of the Klamath River is flowing freely for the first time in over 100 years. There is a lot of media coverage of this achievement including this piece from the New York Times. As I read the article earlier this week, I had to smile when I saw a familiar name in the photo credits, Loren Elliot. Loren and I met over a decade ago in Seattle, through fishing, and later spent 10 days camped out along a mighty steelhead river in BC together. For more on the dam removals, see posts from CalTrout and Klamath River Renewal Corporation.
NOT What You Think
Featuring southern Oregon steelhead guide and Spey casting instructor Jon “Bon” Hazlett, photographer Marcus Mattioli, and countless other fly fishing ‘celebrities’ and characters, Not Another Fly Fishing Movie is hard to describe. It has that Big Lebowski-like quality of not really making sense until you’ve seen it a few times. I think it also gets better every time you watch it. Is it even about fly fishing? I’m pretty sure. In any case, it’s probably not what you think, and it’s definitely not another fly fishing movie. How’s that for a review?
Fishing for Solutions
I’ve sometimes thought this inner peace of mind, this quietness is similar if not identical with sort of calm you sometimes get when going fishing, which accounts for much of the popularity of this sport. Just to sit with the line in the water, not moving, not really thinking about anything, not really caring about anything either, seems to draw out the inner tensions and frustrations that have prevented you from solving problems you couldn’t solve before and introduced ugliness and clumsiness into your actions and thoughts.
~ from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
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