Slow down, you move too fast, you've got to make the morning last…All is groovy. (Lyrics to The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) / Simon & Garfunkel 1967.)
After completing my fly fishing and fly tying courses my friend and editor Alan Mittleman wrote an essay. He opens his piece saying;
The fly fishing writer, John Gierach, writes that all fly fishermen believe that fly fishing teaches us something important about life, but none of them know what it is. I’m a fly fisherman and I don’t know what it is either.
Well this Trout Bum would like to give it a shot!
It’s the fauna, the flora, and the solitude. It’s the constant learning; the attempt to perfect the imperfectable. There are no grounds crews, greens fees, or lift tickets. You don't have to assemble a team to fly fish. There are no modems, motors or phones. It’s the predator-prey relationship where to the predator it’s a game, to the prey it’s life and death. There is no rush, no schedule. It's playing nature’s game, on nature’s terms.
It’s the people you meet, some nice, some not so nice.
It’s a campsite along a babbling brook, the smell of bacon, the pungent smell of hickory smoke and the aroma of a pine forest. It’s strong black coffee on a chilly morning and a campfire, a nip of scotch.
It’s watching a ground squirrel stealing your peanuts while you watch a “riser" in its feeding lie. It’s birds singing, bees buzzing and loons crying.
It’s discovering beautiful places and being alone with nature. It’s learning to enjoy your own company, a chance to reflect. It’s problem solving.
In Reflections, Thoughts and Advice of a Trout Bum, I hope to reflect on pleasant and not so pleasant experiences, share some observations along the river of life, provide some tips on living and fishing alone in the wilder places, and learning how to be comfortable in your own skin.
I hope you get as much plesaure from reading Reflections, Thoughts and Advice of a Trout Bum as I did in writing it