The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 09.06.2024

Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope

My Fishy Friends,

This evening, I finally noticed that the days are getting shorter. I’m certainly ready for fall and cooler weather but it’ll be hard to let go of those long days with lingering light. Does a days feel longer or shorter if you catch all of it? We’re headed up-river this weekend with friends to get into some current. Where will it take us? Down-river is all I know for sure but wherever it is, it’ll be good.

Cheers,
Jesse

Banner photo by the one and only @biddytalk

Steve and Me Again, in Bend

Author, angler, editor, conservationist, musician, and just a real great guy, Steve Duda will be at Roundabout Books in Bend, OR on Thursday, Sept. 12 for an evening of readings from his new book River Songs. I’ll be there with Steve and will join him for a lively Q&A and discussion after the readings. And, of course, there’ll be copies of Steve’s book to purchase and have signed. The event is free and begins at 6:30 p.m. Click here for more information and to register online. Hope to see you there!

Maker in the Mountains

This past spring I was introduced to an extraordinary metalsmith, angler, boater, partner, and mother named Katie Cahn. As people do, we played our name games until we’d found a half-dozen or so that we both knew and then got to work on the most special piece of jewelry that I’ve ever been a part of. Katie turned my vision into something real and along the way, made it even better than I’d envisioned it. Based in South Carolina, she works with reclaimed sterling silver and other metals, unique gemstones, and combines them with her creativity and passions for fish, birds, insects, and nature. Check out her site, Dirt Road Wares, subscribe to her email list to see her jewelry drops as they come, and enjoy her talents!

Home of the Drift Boat

Living near the mighty McKenzie River has afforded me the chance to run my drift boat The Plover down many of its great sections and also to see all sorts of river boats going downriver through waves and rapids and currents, and up-river on trailers. It is, after all, the home of the river dory, aka drift boat. Here’s a great essay by the late Chris Santella on the history of McKenzie River drift boats, based on Oregonian Roger Fletcher’s Drift Boats & River Dories: Their History, Design, Construction, and Use.

Like the steelhead, the drift-boat is the perfect union of form and function all beauty and business, and one of the most honest things on the planet.

~ from The Habit of Rivers by Ted Leeson

The Fly Tapes Are Back

I’ve mentioned it more times than could probably be counted at this point, but Writers on the Fly went on tour last spring, traveling from SF to Eugene. We saw lots of great friends along the way but there were plenty who couldn’t make it to the shows. Well, now you can get a taste of these shows from the comfort of your own headphones or phone or car because The Fly Tapes, WOTF founder Jason Rolfe’s fly fishing and writing podcast just released our live San Francisco show! Readers include Riverhorse Nakadate, George Revel, Anne Landfield, and Steve Duda. Give it a listen on your next commute or walk or bike ride. You can also find The Fly Tapes on Apple Podcasts here.

Peterman Paddles

My favorite television show is Seinfeld - always was and always will be. So when my deep wading pal Pedro shared this video of actor John O’Hurley - J. Peterman on Seinfeld - fly fishing out of his kayak while pontificating on water and fishing and life, I instantly both loved it and knew that I’d put it in one of these newsletters. I don’t know who did the writing (I really O’Hurley did), but it just makes me smile. Come to find out that John O’Hurley is actually a part-owner of the real-life J. Peterman company! This Rolling Stone article tells the story. What a world.

Heart, Mind & Nature

To save wildlife and wild places the traction has to come not from the regurgitation of bad-news data but from the poets, prophets, preachers, professors, and presidents who have always dared to inspire. Heart and mind cannot be exclusive of one another in the fight to save anything. To help others understand nature is to make it breathe like some giant: a revolving, evolving, celestial being with ecosystems acting as organs and the living things within those places - humans included - as cells vital to its survival.

~ from The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, please send it to a friend.
Was this email sent to you by a friend? Click here to subscribe.

1033 3rd Place, Springfield, OR, USA