The other day I found that this quote from “A River Runs Through It” is at the base of the Michael Jordan statue outside Chicago’s United Center:

“At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art, and I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.”

I don’t know of a better way to describe what Michael Jordan was able to do on a basketball court than these words that originally described fly-fishing perfection.

Fishing has been the farthest thing on my mind the last month and a half. Work, already sucking up precious time between 8 and 5 every weekday, has spread like a disease to occupy both time and thought outside of it’s designated time slot. Some might say that this kind of time focused on one’s livelihood is dedication, responsibility, or commitment. Lately I’ve felt revulsion, sickness, and a tendency to engage in projectile vomiting when considering the time I spend each week in a profession I loathe.

Besides voicing my own disdain for hours spent at home stressing about my job/career/company and the weekends spent “working” (being miserable and plotting how I can literally taking a crap on my boss’ desk) rather than “fishing (coping with time spent being miserable during the week and talking myself down from literally taking a crap on my boss’ desk), this post is meant to encourage. Not just myself, as I look forward to time on the river tomorrow for the first time in more than a month, but to everyone out there feeling that life right now is only working a job.

Most of us have spent the last few years trudging through life, nervous about losing a job, going through a foreclosure because a job has been lost, or working doggedly to keep a crummy job while missing out on time with family, friends, or any kind of recreational therapy (i.e. fishing, hunting). But newspapers, crazy business TV talk show hosts, and even bickering politicians are saying the economy is improving. Hopefully this means companies cutting back on cutbacks and reducing benefit reductions. I haven’t’ worked at a job since college that hasn’t had massive layoffs. I haven’t gone 6 months at an employer since college without having management/ownership strip away employee benefits. Maybe this is the turning point.

So take a Saturday, Sunday, or Friday afternoon and hit the water. Breathe. Don’t bite your nails and stay up until midnight pouring over the next project. Realize that things will get better, that they are better already, and perhaps the best thing for you and your job is a day spent fishing.

My wife truly knows next to nothing about fly-fishing. She once had a conversation with her aunt about choosing flies as gifts; they both agreed the best way to choose was to buy flies with interesting names. I found lot of wooly buggers and Bitch Creeks in my stocking the first Christmas or two.

Since then I have tried to share things she can latch onto, while not pressuring her to engage in the sport unless she chooses to. In the seven years we’ve been married she has learned enough to actually give things that she knows I’ll use. Last year she gave me a few superbly hand-tied Salmon flies from a local fly shop, knowing that the quality flies would come to good use this spring and summer.

But this Christmas was a complete home run of sorts. Knowing that the wading boots I had were getting to be unusable (the last time I was in the river one sole fell off; it has already been patched together once), my waders were getting to be questionable (they have more patches on the feet than original material; both knees have been patched twice; some days feel like I’m wet wading even when wearing them), and that I am too cheap to address either situation myself, she completely surprised me. First for our anniversary in early December she surprised me with a new pair of waders, and for Christmas she was able to work a deal online to get a pair of Korkers new wading boots with their interchangeable sole system.

I am excited to hit the water, looking forward to the use I’ll get from the new equipment, but more than either of those sentiments, I’ve realized my wife listens to my fly fishing ramblings more than I’ve given her credit for. And based on the quality gifts she has given the last few years, maybe she knows more about fly-fishing than she’s letting on. Regardless, I couldn’t be any luckier in Christmas gifts or in the quality woman she is.

Work has been over the top, drag-out, makes you want to take up bank robbery as a profession stressful. And not just long hours, hard work, or office bickering and politics. It seems to be worse with management genuinely not showing an interest in keeping those few employees that haven’t been fired without cause, left for a better job, or been abducted by aliens.

So this past weekend was a much-needed relief. Spent time on the water for the first time in weeks. And the fishing was a perfect break from the hell that work has become.

My brother and I found a nice group of half pounders, and spend a few hours fishing with nymphs and finally dries as the afternoon sun provoked a nice hatch. The picture below is of a nicely colored fish my brother took on a light brown Adams variation.

This upcoming weekend doesn’t look like much for weather, but a chance on the water is always worth taking. Don’t look for much in the way of top-water insect activity, with cold days and chances of snow for the next few days. If trying the water, look to nymphs and streamers on an intermediate or sinking line, with indicators really the only strategy with floating lines.

Kirk Deeter is looking to incite a riot with his latest article on Field and Stream’s website. His suggestion: dry-fly only waters on select classic trout streams. The reasons for this proposal are sincere: reaching a lower fish mortality rate. His supposition is that nymph and streamer fishing often results in foul hooked fish, and eliminating these methods of fishing from select trout streams would allow for higher fish survival rates. Anglers would accrue a more refined skill set that dry fly fishing often requires, and Deeter suggests, creating more intense interest in the sport due to the skills needed to develop as a dry-fly fisher.

I said the article came across as sincere, not that I agree with the overarching proposal. As many of those commenting on the post at Field and Stream have suggested, closing rivers would hurt most those who love the sport but do not have time to fish famous waters but once a year or a life. For those who stay close to home, sneaking out during a kid’s nap to fish for two hours in the middle of the afternoon often requires going deep with nymphs and streamers in search of fish. I could see putting dry-fly only seasons on famous rivers during specific time periods that epic hatches usually happen. Maybe the month of October on western rivers sees a dry fly only season due to the October Caddis hatch, or early summer months are dry fly only for salmon fly hatches. But the idea is time period seasons, not yearlong stretches of river closed to all but those with dries at the end of their leader.

I disagree most with the article’s openly stated snobbery that fishing with nymphs and streamers on classic stretches of water are steps below fishing with dries on the fly-fishing totem pole. Somehow fishing the Green River, the Frying Pan, or the Gallatin with a beadhead nymph is an affront to unwritten rules, the result of which is creating a class-like existence on our rivers. I personally don’t believe in bobber nymphing (bymphing?), but I can’t begrudge the guy spending what little time he has each month on a stream waiting for the indicator to go under. A person may be a better dry fly fisherman, but that doesn’t mean that they belong on a river more than the person perfecting fishing with nymphs. I may have a personal structure of how I enjoy fishing with dry flies, streamers, or nymphs, but that belief set is just that: personal. Projecting my own beliefs onto others is something best left to politicians and crooked religious leaders. I’d prefer fly fishing focus more on the enjoyment of the water, the development of the sport, and most importantly the fish.

So let’s teach newcomers how to fish better with nymphs and streamers, bend down barbs more than just when required, or allow time-frame seasons of dry fly fishing only seasons. But let’s not continue to put people on classes based on the fly they use. We’re above that.

PS I do find it interesting that Deeter also wrote this article last year, seemingly in support of center pinning (nymphing).

It’s better than Christmas. Or Hanukah. Or even Kwanza. It’s the most magical time of the year, that short time each fall where the upper Rogue becomes blessedly empty of gear fisherman and bait containers. Or at least new bait containers; it seems a surprisingly high percentage of “baiters” assume that the natural beauty of a riverbank is a perfect resting place for Styrofoam worm containers.

But I digress. Back to the fact that you need to be out every chance you have between the recently deceased Gold Ray Dam (hooray!) and the hatchery to enjoy the less crowded banks! Between 9/1 and 10/31 all angling in this section is restricted to flies only (yes, bubbles and spinning rods are ok). Take the time to enjoy it, especially those places usually gummed up with 34 of your favorite gear heads.

The weather is still the same: hot and hot.

But, that shouldn’t put a hitch in your plans like visiting in-laws might. Local lakes and ponds are seeing good bass activity; supposedly someone at work pulled two 5lb plus bass out of Emigrant Lake on Wednesday. (I don’t know if I buy the guy’s story; he made it sound like one of the bass pulled him in the water and almost swamped his boat it was soooo big, like something out of Old Man and the Sea). But I do know from firsthand experience that Applegate Lake has some decent size bass along the shoreline. Don’t be afraid to fish on top, with flashy poppers and frog patterns.

Not to be outdone by the warm water opportunities, the Rogue is starting to get pretty, pretty, pretty interesting. Decent steelhead numbers are moving into the upper Rogue; the Holy Water has some nice caddis and evening dun hatches stirring it up. Not a bad time to hit the Holy water for some nice Rainbows and then drift nymphs for steelhead downstream.

This weekend is looking hot. And not the freshly showered and ready for action kind. Or, maybe more in the vein of this site, the thick clouds of caddis over the water or extreme hopper activity kind. Hot as in the only time of day worth checking out the river or stream you’re thinking of is before the sun comes up or after it goes down.

The Upper rogue is having some luck for summer steelhead, but the bright sun and warm air is putting them down except for early and late in the day. Try hitting runs with deep water or boulder stretches with shade with deep nymphs and streamers. Trout fishing has been good with the same steelhead pattern as above, with evening caddis hatches providing some dry fly action late.

The Rogue above Lost Creek continues to perform well for small to midsize stockers, providing a fun time during the weekend on a 3- or 4-weight rod. Union creek fished really well this past weekend on mosquito patterns, and the shade of the trees is a nice relief from the extreme heat.

Local lakes are seeing good bass and bluegill fishing, with Applegate fishing especially well on the beach side of Hart-Tish Park with big noisy streamers and leach patterns. This past week we’ve heard stories of two 3-5lb bass caught on fly rods from float tubes along the rocky coves along the main road, so watch out for likely spots to throw a line.

But, if daytime fishing on a river is your thing, head to the Southfork Umpqua. I’ve seen a few reports this week that bass have been hitting it hard. And the weather is supposed to be a bit (no much, but some) cooler than here in the Rogue valley.

Best of luck!

The past two weeks have been quiet here on the piscatorial journal. Hopefully someone other than the obligatory family member has noticed…

I’ve been on the yearly visit-every-family-member trip that took my wife, daughter, and I to North Idaho and Western Montana. During the trip I had the fortune of fishing twice with my grandfather, the man who taught me how to cast a fly-line, helped me catch my first steelhead, explained to me why you release a fish, and made sure I knew at an early age it is always a rod, never a pole.

In years past he was the one who manned the oars of his drift boat, working hard to put me over fish on his home water of the Kootenai River. He made it a point to fish as much as we could get away with whenever I was there, up to the point my grandmother would start getting upset, but never staying on the river too much to get either one of us in too much trouble. And if we did tick off the other visiting relatives by being away from the family too much, he’d look at me and say, “Oh hell, let’s go fishing some more.”

This year I was able to convince my grandfather to let me do the rowing; he’d just been cleared by his doctor to start being physically active due to a back and leg surgery. And while all those fish he’d helped me catch over the years are special to me, the fish he caught this week while I rowed meant much more. Having the chance to get out on the water was nice (especially after the train wreck of a week I’d spent with the in-laws prior to seeing my grandparents), but having a chance to give something back to my grandfather was better than any fish I may have caught over the years.

I’m all for experimenting. With fly tying (nothing weird). There are fly patterns using Ziploc baggies, condoms, Christmas ornaments, all kinds of dead animals, and the list goes on.

But there are bad ideas, or at least ideas we’ll never get to try. Recently I was reminded of this during several different conversations. So here they are:

-My cat’s wife’s tail will never be used as a pike fly. I suggested this after 43rd time Luc(ifer)y my wife’s cat took a big ol’ leak on my clothes drying in the laundry room. This cat has it out for me, and I for it, but the cat has my wife on its side.

-Suggesting that a new idea for a Great White shark pattern might be a bloody life jacket. This after driving by our local sporting good store that had a display of different mannequins in life jackets, and then driving by a butcher shop that had a side of beef in the window. And of course my mind made the connection: the first Great White shark pattern for a fly rod. You’d basically take a harpoon, soak a life jacket in cow blood, and then tie the two together.

-Using my boss’ very “loud” and bright hair ties as bass plugs. She thinks that bright, crazy colored, and “buggy” looking hair ties really do go nice with professional clothes. I told a friend/coworker that I think her hair looks like a willow tree that has three or four bass flies stuck in it.