A Moments Feeling

[Fontinalis]

Today I look at my Library and see such great names like Skues, Roger Fogg, Bates, Leisenring, E.M Todd, Leonard, Bergman, Rubin Cross, Dette, Darbee, Mary Orvis Marbury, Carrie Stevens, Isaak Walton, Van Put, Atherton, Wulff, Hughes, Jim Quick, LaBranche, Gordon, Rice, Shaw, Poul Jorgenson and the list go's on and on. My library is unique. In reading these books I get taken away to a time that once was. Only to imagine of what it was like to be alive and fish in a time where fish really were plentiful and conservation did not exist and the land was unspoiled and wild and full of mystery. Due to me being a tyer I get into the patterns and hear the stories and history about them. Thinking why won't these flies work in my time and place in this microcosm of time that we all take for granted. So I sit sown at the vise and bring these old creations back to life. I look at these flies in awe and fall in love with the old again. So I continue to tye and replicate all the old patterns to fill my fly boxes and prepare to fish for the up coming season. Then a haunting does occur. I am on my fabled fly waters in the Catskills; I am fishing wet flies on the upper Willowemoc. I catch my first fish and am very happy and give thanks to my creator for my catch and a thank you to Bergman for a pattern I found in his book Trout. I continue fishing and realize awhile later that some of my experiences this day that had occurred I read in a book. An eerie feeling comes over me and I stop and realize that this is how it felt back then. This is what the author's trials and tribulations felt like. I get off stream that day and head into Roscoe for a fine Italian dinner at one of the very few eateries in town. I am on a natural high and can't explain this state I am in. The meal is good but the experience of the day I can not even try to explain. I am so excited to get back to my tying vise and tie some different classic patterns to fish with besides the ones in my fly box. I feel reborn, I feel purpose, and I feel rejuvenated. It's like all the issues in my day to day life are gone and the only thing that matters is fishing, tying and being alive. That full week Sunday to Sunday I spend every year in the Catskills makes the world stand still but makes time fly by. I come home and my wife see's a rested man. Only if she knew I was up till 3:00 AM every night tying flies, fishing from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM, Quick dinner, quick shower, clean up the gear and sit down and start tying. Then I finally come back home and tell tales of my fishing week experience for the next 11 months. Now I fish on my near closer waters in NJ and PA, but always share a fishing story of that week in the Catskills with a friend or stranger I meet on stream. I now to this day still sense that the old is still new. The hands of time maybe in the 2000's, but my heart and memories are back in the early 1900's. I hope that some of you take the time once in awhile to stop and smell the roses. We are here on this earth for only a moment in time. My 45 years on this planet has flown by and seems that the rest of my life will still not be enough. I am just starting to live. I am finding specially with my fly fishing and fly tying that every day is a new adventure, a new story and new old piece of history and if we are lucky enough we get to get a glimpse of what it felt like in an older period of time.

[Clarkii]

hey that was a very nice read-
thank you for sharing that- it was a nice way to start my morning.

,
Clarkii.

[nighthawk]

Cannot say it any better myself. Thanks.

[mashtom]

Bravo, a fine read indeed. Thanks for sharing.

[TyroneFly]

Wow! I really enjoyed that! I wish I could put thoughts to words like that.

Thank you for sharing.

[scubatim]

Very well said. Now I can't wait to get out and fish, I might even have to find one of those old books and tie a few of the old classics

[Eight Thumbs]

Hi Fontinalis,

Very nicely put. The more I read about the history and tradition of this wonderful sport, the more it enriches my present experience. 8T

[flybinder]

VERY WELL done,Fontinalis!
I own a lot of, what I guess is considered, "the old fly fishing/tying books" and reading about the days gone by is always so relaxing and enjoyable to me as well.
"Breaking for the noon day meal, up on the banks of a stream", was not only necessary at a point in time because you may be hungry, but also it was usually required when fishing drys, to peel your line off your reel, stretch it between two trees so it could dry and when dry........ be re-greased for the afternoon or evening hatch.
I suppose, today, we're all pretty "spoiled" with lines we can fish for days on end, without such a need.
Still, even with these new and modern lines, my long time fishing partner and I still stop, mid-day, even if no lunch is to be consumed. We'll sit, rest, talk and watch the stream/river go by.
We, both, love tying the older patterns and fishing them. Long before fly-bobbers and split shot were in fashion, some of the finest and mose widely used patterns still used today, were thought of and "going back" to that time, has made me appreciate the obsession of fly fishing even more.
Thanks for the story, it really hit home!

[gadabout]

Great post Andy. I know exactly where you're coming from. At some point in my life, I started looking backwards in time instead of forwards. I also long for a time machine to take me back to where the fishing that I dream about existed.

[FlyFlopper]

Your words also express my feelings after a day of fishing. And I too am benefiting from reading some of the classic fishing literature. It enhances and promotes my experience I believe. Well written. Thanks for that insight. Very uplifting I thought!