The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere - 09.20.2024
Ramblings & Readings, Creativity & Conservation, Happenings & Hope
My Fishy Friends,
My parents are visiting this week, and we’re on a little tour of central Oregon rivers. Each is unique but they all end up in what’s now called the Columbia River, one way or another. Are they the same river then? Interesting to think that at one particular fork near Portland, a fish could take a right or a left and still end up in roughly the same place, hundreds of miles later.
Cheers,
Jesse
Within 24 Hours of Noon on Sept. 17
Author and environmentalist Barry Lopez was a resident of Oregon’s McKenzie River for nearly fifty years and in that time, came to know the river and its fish in deep ways, including their sounds. To this point, in his essay, “Lessons from the River”, Lopez writes, If the salmon don’t arrive by the evening of the 17th, I walk down through the woods to stand in the dark and listen for them… If I don’t hear them, I toss and turn through a sleepless night and go down to look first thing in the morning. I yearn to know a river this well again. First published in 2018, this essay of Lopez’ was just re-posted by the McKenzie River Trust, and at just the right time.
A Celebration of Oregon Rivers
On Saturday, October 5th, WaterWatch of Oregon hosts its 22nd Annual Celebration of Oregon Rivers, a gala and auction fundraising event, at the World Forestry Center in Portland, OR. I will be there, along with the rest of the WaterWatch crew, to celebrate another year of hard work for Oregon’s river flows. WaterWatch is a river conservation nonprofit focused on instream flows, groundwater, and free-flowing rivers. Our most recent victory updated the state’s groundwater (aquifer) allocation process, which will help ensure wells and rivers don’t run dry in the future. There are numerous fly fishing- and boating-related items and packages up for grabs in our live and silent auctions. Click here to browse what’s available, and I hope to see you there!
Liberty Graphics
As a young boy, there was a time when the absolute coolest thing you could wear to school was a glow-in-the-dark t-shirt from Liberty Graphics, a design and silk-screen company based just down the road from where I grew up. Their colorful and unique designs celebrate birds and bugs, dinosaurs and stars, fish and mammals, Maine and more, and they easily bring a smile to both wearers and viewers. I bet you can find one that you or someone you know would like to wear.
To Catch a Steelhead on a Dry, Fish a Dry
I’m almost certain that someone in the Pacific Northwest is fishing for steelhead when you’re reading this. I wonder how their fishing is? Given it’s that time of year, I offer the following, Kenny Morrish’s An Eye for the Steelhead Dry, which was printed in Fly Water Travel’s 2013 catalog. This is less of a how-to article and more of an I-dare-you-to. Believe what Kenny says or not, you must believe that to catch a steelhead on a dry, you have to fish one.
How many times have steelheaders begrudgingly been persuaded to try the dry, fished a single run with it to no avail and then happily switched back to the sink tip to fruitlessly beat their brains out for the remainder of the day? Plenty. And what did they learn? That dries don’t work. Think about that logic.
The Parting Glass
There’s a lot to like about this song - both this version by Freddie White, and the traditional tune in general. For starters is the concept of a ‘parting glass’, a final drink offered to friends before the depart, but I also love the contradictory lyrics. As example, the first two lines:
Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
I was talking about contradictions in fly fishing last week with Mr. Duda and he reminded me that they’re everywhere and we all deal with them. It all makes me think of a line from the late, great Brian Doyle’s: “We chew the past but we hunger for the future.”
Fishing and Writing (Again/Still)
Still, fishing and writing had a good deal in common. You had to wait and be prepared to catch what came your way. You had to know the difference between a shadow and the real thing.
~ The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
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