Feest Isolation Days – 1 October
When Kathy suggested I post Day 201, I didn’t know what to write about. I have already written about the coronavirus, and had a rant about the state of the world and our own government’s inability to govern. Now Covid cases are rising and we are facing the second wave, American politics look so bad that some kind of civil unrest looks quite possible, and we still have a government which cannot make clear and reasoned decisions. Faced with all that something light seemed appropriate!
Yesterday I spent virtually all the daylight hours on my own, fly rod in hand, on a lake in a small open boat buffeted by the wind in the pouring rain. Some might say that is taking social distancing to an extreme. Kathy suggested I write about fly-fishing!
“The great charm of fly-fishing is that we are always learning.” ~Theodore Gordon
Many of you know some four or five years ago I took up fly-fishing, and it has become an almost obsessional pastime which gives me enormous pleasure. It is great to take up something new at my stage of life. I am of the age when progressively all the things I have been quite adept at, I do less well! If you are a longstanding golfer (which I am not), at my age your handicap declines. If you ski you cannot do the difficult runs so well. If you cycle your stamina is less. A basic fact of old age is slow decline, we are doing well if we can just mark time and not get worse at the things we are skilled at. So, take up something new, something you cannot do. As you learn you get better, very satisfying! In time you will plateau, but for me the fishing plateau is still some way ahead, there are many skills to learn and practice, so improvement continues and makes me feel a little younger!
“I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself ” ~Joseph Monniger
The first reaction of the majority of people when they hear I am a fly fisherman is along the lines of “How nice, it must be very contemplative or meditative”. It is not! you are always doing something, always concentrating, that is why it is so pleasurable. Why would I want to take up a hobby that gives me more time to think about Covid, or politics, or climate change, or getting older? The essence of a good hobby is that it takes you into another world.
I had not quite realised before how much I love that other world of being by water, whether it is a small lake on a farm, a huge lake on the moors, a small burbling stream or a great rushing river. With the subtlest changes in wind and light everything changes on and by the water
“To go fishing is the chance to wash one’s soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity toward tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week. And it is discipline in the equality of men – for all men are equal before fish.” ~Herbert Hoover
Some current presidents and prime ministers could do with some of Herbert Hoover’s humility!
Fly-fishing is irrational. Tossing a metal hook covered in feathers and fur into a swirling river in the hope that some passing fish will take it, is an act of faith and hope, not reason. To be a fisherman you have to be an optimist.
“If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago. Zane Grey.
It’s not even clear if catching fish is actually the point. J Gierach
There are many days when you catch no fishat all, you are just practicing casting! And then it rains, or is cold, or windy, or all three at once (just like yesterday!) and we still go on doing it, trying to make the perfect cast, find the perfect spot. And then there are the occasional days when everything goes right, and you know why you go on!
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. John Buchan
Somewhat to my surprise, I found that fly-fishers are predominantly men. Perhaps I had been fooled by the fact that one of the more famous fly-fishers was a woman, the late Queen Mother. Nevertheless, my fly-fishing hero is not a hero, but a heroine! I needed to learn to cast properly, and after extensive searches for book and video/web tutorials I discovered Joan Wulff. At the age of five or six she was often taken fishing by her father on a rowboat – father fished, mother rowed, Joan helped. She formed the firm opinion “that it was better to be the fisherman than the rower” – and so she became. In 1951 she won the American National Fisherman’s Distance Fly Casting event – she was the only woman competitor. The next year they changed the rules to much heavier tackle, too heavy for her to manage! She had won not by power, but by technique – with elegance!. Every sport has the occasional superstar who makes it look effortless, who is graceful – Sebastian Coe running, David Gower batting. Such is Joan Wulff. Now in her nineties she still teaches and is still elegant! I have learned so much from her books and videos, my casting is much improved, but I am still a huffer and puffer who gets by!
If you can handle heat, cold, wind, rain, and biting insects, with dignity, you will love fly-fishing. Joan Wulff
It is hard to explain why I get so much pleasure from this hobby. There is certainly an element of the primaeval hunter gatherer experience. And then no two fishing days are the same, there is constant variation, constant learning. But in the end it is all a matter of taste, I like White Burgundy and not Sauvignon, Beethoven and not Berlioz, lamb and not pork, fishing and not golf!
I hope your other worlds give you as much pleasure as mine does.
Stay safe,
Terry