I recently spent a week on a waterway widely known as holy land for the religion of fly fishing. Often difficult, never easy this river offers fly fishing people around the world a chance to test their wits and skills against wild trout with a prolific and quickly changing aquatic insect food base. For some time now my “fly fishing mentor” has been professing the effective importance of “Micro Nymphs” – tiny little mayfly imitations tied on minute hook sizes not even manufactured by many of the top suppliers. The hook is so small just an extra turn of thread will throw the proportions out of whack. There are few feelings in the world as satisfying as the moment of unbridled discovery! I don’t mean the accumulation of a small solution or tool, but rather the moment when a discovery flies into your living radar screen from an origin you didn’t even know existed. Although my mentor could point the way, I would never have gained the mastery of this moment unless I spent those countless hours with the material of this epiphany. Hours upon hours at the bench and even more in the stream. But all of that led up to a moment. A single moment when the lightbulb went on and I could see the solution. Now my vision has changed. The information was always there though …right in front of my eyes. We often have to pick and choose our battles as we ride the ever lengthening road toward perfection. Learning how, when, where, and why to fish Micro Nymphs has been a small battle won in this camp.
I recently spent a week on a waterway widely known as holy land for the religion of fly fishing. Often difficult, never easy this river offers fly fishing people around the world a chance to test their wits and skills against wild trout with a prolific and quickly changing aquatic insect food base. For some time now my “fly fishing mentor” has been professing the effective importance of “Micro Nymphs” – tiny little mayfly imitations tied on minute hook sizes not even manufactured by many of the top suppliers. The hook is so small just an extra turn of thread will throw the proportions out of whack. There are few feelings in the world as satisfying as the moment of unbridled discovery! I don’t mean the accumulation of a small solution or tool, but rather the moment when a discovery flies into your living radar screen from an origin you didn’t even know existed. Although my mentor could point the way, I would never have gained the mastery of this moment unless I spent those countless hours with the material of this epiphany. Hours upon hours at the bench and even more in the stream. But all of that led up to a moment. A single moment when the lightbulb went on and I could see the solution. Now my vision has changed. The information was always there though …right in front of my eyes. We often have to pick and choose our battles as we ride the ever lengthening road toward perfection. Learning how, when, where, and why to fish Micro Nymphs has been a small battle won in this camp.
Wed, Sep 2, 2009
CoC Redux