1– Park your vehicle at the pull-off and prepare to walk upstream.
2– Slow your breathing and expect the unexpected.
3– Watch the old world settling on water like a leaf that floats away.
4– Be astonished. There’s a beaver on the bank ahead. It stands in the evening light and reaches for a branch above. Its silhouette becomes a bear.
5– Attend to the hatches. When a big brown snubs your tan caddis, it’s because the dark flies hold his eye.
6– Experiment and try something new (I’d never tried to cast tandem dries before, but five of the next six trout slammed the dark fly and ignored the tan).
7– Brooks and browns and rainbows rise in the pool. Play them in. Release them gently.
8– Pause to absorb the late-day sun. It’s a grand-slam hour when springtime turns to summer.
9– Speak of it, if you dare….
Sounds like a tried and true formula. Let me know if you want ot meet in NW PA for some stream fishing.
Leigh, I may get back to you on that in a couple of weeks or so!
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That’s great advice, especially slowing down and taking it all in. I’ve been guilty of rushing things when I’m fishing, but it never works out as well for me as when I slow down and take time to absorb what’s going on around me.
Number 3…brilliant.
Thanks Bob. That’s when the world that’s “too much with us” drops away, as if it never mattered at all.
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Joseph, Slowing down and getting composed is a tricky thing to accomplish, given the nature of ourselves when we arrive at the river, but it helps when there’s a bit of a walk to our destination, as well.
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As you said with #9, it is nice to be able to speak of our favorite spots and exciting catches, but sometimes it is best not to be too specific.
Peter, that is it, exactly, we want to encourage, but often it is each to his own.
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