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All fishing trips are special. And for different reasons.
It may be an opportunity to see new country, fish for
species not native to your region, eat regional food,
meet new people - and always, the absolute joy of being
able to see the gifts of nature.
The scenery on the trips to Quebec, Michigan and the recent
Idaho Fish-In was spectacular. Just like living in your
own post card. But it is the little things which make up the
whole. I have an artist friend who moved from New York City
to Big Timber, Montana. She tried to take it all in, the
absolute magnificence of Big Sky Country. Finally, she said
she gave up. The only way to see it all was to start at the
bottom. She sat on the ground with her paper and paints and
began painting each blade of grass, stem of sage, leaf of
prickly pear, individual stones and the tones of the earth
she sat on. All parts of the whole.
Here is the whole, and some of the parts.
These little butterflies were along the banks of the Selway,
along side any little puddles of water. Hundreds of them,
they appeared out of nowhere.
If anyone knows who this tiny little frog is, I'd love
to know. We searched the Internet and our books, it
isn't there. The photo is large, but the frog actually is
much smaller than your pinky fingernail.
Wherever we fish we make a point of checking out what
the fish might have to eat. Empty insect shucks are
a good clue, the one below found on a rock on the
Selway. The stonefly nymph and sculpin all were
all on the upper Selway, Idaho too.
Even 'tho we were fishing dry flies, we are well aware
of the number of sub-surface foods available. Had we
wished to fish 'wet' we would have been able to match
what was available. It's a good idea to check stream-side
spider webs as well. You might be surprised what you find.
To the right is another inhabitant of the Selway. It
is a stonefly nymph. He was hanging out in very
shallow water - I suspect it was much safer there. If
you look carefully you can see a slight line in the first
segment below it's head. That is the beginning of a
crack which will develop to allow the nymph to come out
of the shuck and become a winged insect. Stoneflies
'hatch' by crawling out of the water to land, crawling
out of the shuck, pumping up their wings with venal
fluid and fly off to find a mate.
We almost missed these.
Actually we did miss them on the way to the water - but
not on the way back. I was fortunate to take a class by
Dr. Alexander Smith, author of several fine books on
mushrooms, many years ago. We picked most of the clumps
we found in this campground on the Lochsa, cleaned them
and cooked them up for the Friday night Steak Fry at the
Idaho Fish-In. They were a real treat - absolutely fresh,
and free for the picking. We didn't have a bag or container
to put them in, so we piled them into JC's landing net.
The mushrooms were the only thing I cooked in a week at
the Three Rivers Resort.
All of our lives are so busy and involved we miss a lot. It's
early fall here, and the spiders are building all sorts of webs.
The morning mist and marine fog touch them gently and deposit
tiny pearls along the strands of the web. Breath taking.
Don't be so eager to catch fish that you miss the little
things. It is an important part of our world,
and will give you memories which may long outlast the fish. ~ LadyFisher
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
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