Making It Complicated
By Neil M. Travis, Montana
At this time of year the mailbox is brimming with
catalogues from all the various mail order sporting
goods dealers. Each contains all the glittering new
offerings, and I must admit I generally take the time
to look through them. There are always new things,
even if the old things did the job just fine. It seems
that everything must be 'new and improved' in order to
keep the consumer happy. It also seems that with each
new improvement life gets a little more complicated.
I have been writing material for publication for over 40
years, and I started out writing articles on a manual
typewriter. Manual typewriters had no spell check, no
automatic correction, and when you made an error you
had to erase it by hand. If you removed the paper from
the machine before you discovered your error you likely
ended up typing the entire page over again. From manual
machines I moved to an electric, but correction was still
done by hand. Then they improved the electric models to
provide for spell check, and a means to erase what you
had typed by pressing a button. About the time they made
typewriters into proficient machines they were suddenly
replaced by word processors, and then computers. Each step
up the ladder made the process a bit easier, but also more
complex.
Manual typewriters were very basic machines that went on
for years without requiring anything more than a new ribbon
every few thousand pages. The early electric models were
equally simple, unless the power went out, but each
successive model was more and more complicated. If your
old manual model had a problem a local repairman could have
it up in running in a very short time, but if an electric
model went down it might have to be shipped to the factory.
If it was more than a couple years old it was likely that
no one had the parts to fix it. In the computer age God help
you if your machine develops a problem or worse yet gets a
virus, and like many modern machines new and improved models
appear so fast that your latest desktop model is obsolete
before you get it unpacked. With software and hardware
glitches, printers that refuse to print, and power surges
that wipe out several hours of work it would be a stretch
of the imagination to declare that they have made life easier.
It is with a similar suspicion that I look at all the new
gadgets in the sporting goods catalogues, each one guaranteed
to be an improvement over last years offering. Sometimes I
wonder how it is possible to find something to improve when
the original item was so very simple, and worked so well.
I have a closet full of fly rods that I have accumulated over
the years. During my fly fishing career I have witnessed the
progression from bamboo to fiberglass and from fiberglass to
graphite, boron and now titanium. Modern fly rods made from
man-made materials are generally lighter in weight than a
comparable rod made of bamboo, however except for some very
subtle and subjective nuances that are likely only to be
noticed by a very small number of casters little has changed.
To entice us to purchase a new rod they suggest that it will
cast farther, the loop with be tighter, or it will be more
accurate. With a bit of practice and maybe a few lessons from
a qualified instructor most people can cast farther, have better
loop control and be more accurate with the rod they currently
own. Years ago when I taught fly casting classes we had a broom
with guides taped on the handle, and with a little practice I
discovered I could cast quite well with that old broom. It wasn't
a joy to cast, and I certainly would not have wished to use it for
fishing, but it proved a point. In the hands of an expert caster
the latest fly rod might produce a slightly longer cast, or have
slightly better loop control, but for the average angler these
subtleties are negligible. My newest rod is over 10 years old,
and some of the ones I use regularly are over 30 years old.
Somehow I still manage to catch a fish or two on those antiques.
The largest section of any angling catalogue is the section
devoted to gadgets; clippers, retractors, magnifiers, fly
boxes, and the like. Every year there are several new 'must
have' gadgets that will make the anglers life easier. To
accommodate all these must have items fly vests now have
so many pockets am surprised that someone has not invented
some type of electronic device to tell the angler what is
in each pocket. By the time the angler looks through each
pocket to find the item they are looking for it's likely
they have either forgotten what they were looking for, or
they no longer need it.
Of course no fly fishing catalogue would be complete
without several pages of flies. Although you will find
some flies that are always listed, like the Royal Coachman,
and the Adams there are always several pages of new or
improved patterns. I am always amazed to notice that these
new and/or improved patterns rarely show up in the next
catalogue. It always seems that some newer or more improved
model has replaced them. In the world of high-tech modern
fly-fishing nothing is new for long.
One other thing that is constantly changing in sporting
goods catalogues, and especially in those dedicated to
fly-fishing stuff is the price. All this new gadgetry
is expensive. A vest with enough pockets to handle all
the paraphernalia will set you back at least a hundred
dollars, and by the time you buy all the fly boxes,
clippers, hemostats, and other essential items you have
dropped enough to make a good down payment on a car. Now
you still have to buy a rod, reel, line, leaders, tippets,
flies, waders, rain jacket, sunglasses, and hat. It you are
thinking about buying a boat and trailer you had best make
a trip to your friendly banker. I hope you have good credit.
Perhaps I am just an old curmudgeon, but I still find that
much of the old stuff still works just fine, and most of
it is a lot less complex. I have several old fiberglass
rods with metal reel seats that still cast a fly just as
good as they did 30 years ago when they were new. All of
my fly reels are single action models, with no fancy drag
systems, but they still perform flawlessly after all these
years. I like simple fur and feather flies, and most of the
patterns I have in my boxes are old reliable flies that have
been around for many, many years. Day in and day out they
seem to allow me to catch as many fish as the guys with all
the newest creations.
Perhaps it's the results of growing old, but what always
seemed to be so simple has now become so complicated. Walton
said that angling was a contemplative sport, but today it
seems to be the complicated one. From the waders on you feet
to the vest on your back everything is high tech, new and
improved, and just a bit more pricey than last year, and
somehow it doesn't seem to last as long.
Well, I like to look at the sporting goods catalogues,
but I rarely purchase any of their offerings. My rods
are not the latest models, but they still cast my fly
line. My old fly vest isn't made of the newest high
tech material, the zippers stick, and it only has about
10 pockets, but it holds all the things I need for a day
on the stream. Despite the fact that I have very few of
the latest gadgets I still manage to catch a few trout,
and in the final analysis I think that's what it's all
about. ~ Neil M. Travis, Montana/Arizona
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