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Zen and Fly Fishing
by Larry R. Miller
Eat, Sleep and Fish...Maybe.
"Expectation" "When I expect to get something, I stop
wanting it and begin needing it in order to be happy."
Anonymous.
We'd been working hard. Everything was ready for winter
and the ten day weather forecast predicted a hard freeze
in eight days. I'd caught a lot of crappie and quite a
few bass but hadn't had a chance to do any trout fishing
and it had been a troutless summer. At 4:00 pm, I left
for the high mountains. Everyone who'd fished the lakes
told me I'd be able to catch a lot of fish; and I
expected to. Eat, sleep and fish was my plan.
When I got to the first lake it was cold, there were
white caps on the lake and no campsites. It was bow
hunting season and the overflow was camped roadside on
the way to the next lake. No one was in the campground
at the second lake but the wind was harder, whitecaps on
the small lake were bigger and the temperature was
dropping faster than the sun over the horizon.
Determined, and expecting, to catch some trout I set up
my tent and, after putting on a couple more layers of
clothes, I began unloading the pickup. I figured I'd
toughed it out before and could again. From somewhere
deep in my mind came, "How much antifreeze is in the
pickup?"
At that point I had choices...Get up every hour and
start the engine; hope there was enough antifreeze; get
mad because things weren't working out; get over it, go
back home and then go down to the Snake River the next
day and fish for crappie and bass. It wasn't easy...I
really wanted trout. The sun was gone and my cold
fingers hurt while reloading the pickup.
With thoughts of cracked engine blocks crossing my mind,
I reluctantly headed back down the dark, twisting gravel
road. Once when sailing in Mexico, we'd left port with a
destination in mind only to return in a few hours wet
and cold. This was a repeat performance, but without the
anger I'd had thirty years before.
The next morning I headed toward the river. My
expectation? Lots of crappie, a few bass from the kayak
or float tube and, maybe, two or three trout in the next
three days. I drove along my favorite trout stream on
the way. Miles of creek front property had been bought
or leased for cattle grazing and "NO TRESPASSING" signs
were posted. My luck on that creek had always been
excellent in the spring when the trout were moving up to
spawn. We hadn't arrived until late June, the water had
been low, with my expectations even lower, so I hadn't
tried.
I knew a couple of miles weren't posted but expected the
fish to have moved back into the river. Celinda had
asked more than once why I didn't try fishing it anyway.
This time I did, even though it was midday, the sun was
on the water, it was hot and I didn't expect to catch
anything.
After changing from jeans to a wet suit bottom and surf
socks, I picked my way down the bank, hand over hand.
Limbs from large trees hung over the game trail and
pushing one aside, I came face to face with a doe and
two half grown fawns. I'd been hanging on to whatever
was available to keep from pitching headlong down the
bank.
The doe and fawns did a midair 180º turn, headed down
the bank at full speed, crossed the creek on the run and
disappeared into the trees. Slipping, sliding and doing
a five point butt skid before reaching the creek, I
wondered how the deer did it.
I've caught big tuna and Mahi-mahi while under sail,
lake and river fishing is fun from a kayak or float
tube, crappie are decent fighters and bass put up a
better battle than them or trout, but stream fishing
with flies is more challenging, more Zen.
Fly fishing isn't just baiting a hook and waiting.
Catching fish with flies you've tied yourself on
barbless hooks is fulfilling. Catching and releasing
them feeds the soul. Once while teaching fly casting, a
student who couldn't get the hang of it said I looked
like a damn ballet dancer. My reply to her was, "Thanks,
they're both art forms."
The successful fly fisherman not only has to know how to
fly cast, they have to know which fly the fish will
accept, has to be able to read the water, know where
fish are at that particular time of day, what effects
the weather will have on where the fish are, whether
fishing upstream, across stream or downstream will be
best when dovetailed with all the other information and
criteria and a few tricks that very few ever take time
to learn or discover. Fly fishing is satorii: T'ai Chi
applied.
The next hour was sheer bliss and produced twelve trout
over twelve inches, most between fourteen and sixteen
inches and three over sixteen. The three day trout total
was fifty or sixty hooked, thirty-six caught and
released, three bass from the kayak on the river and,
even though I fished for them one morning where I've
caught hundreds, no crappie.
By allowing life to be, we can exceed our expectations.
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