Breakaway Adventures: The Art of Fly Fishing
Breakaway Adventures: The Art of Fly Fishing
With Ski Season Battling Climate Change, It Might Be Time to Consider a Different Pastime
With the ski season battling climate change, it might be time to consider a different pastime. All of you ski bums should consider becoming trout bums if you haven’t already. The fly fishing season is longer, it’s more universal and best of all, the mind set is still the same. I suppose tele-skiers are the most likely to put away their boards and pick up their rods. After all, “free the heel, free the mind” - the rhetoric of the free heeler - is the same as that of the fly fisher, “It’s not the fish that we’re after” to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau!
Fly fishing is truly a sport of all ages! The fly rod is equally at home in the hands of the Miss or the Mister, the child or the grandfather, the doctor or the farmer. Fly fishing is beautiful, like an Olympic rhythmic gymnast performing with their ribbon; the fly fisher performs with their fly line, forming graceful loops in the air or more relatable to some, like the telemarker creating a sensation on the slopes with a series of graceful bent knee turns.
The fly fisher combines the endless summer with the endless winter, a non-stop pursuit of the tailing redfish or wintering steelhead. When you can’t get out on the water you pass the time at tying bench waxing your thread to create the perfect duping loop. There is always something to do to soothe your soul and please your mind. The danger is not to become an addict, obsessed with perfection that so many succumb too. Moderation is the secret to contentment!
Fly fishing takes on a whole new dimension when your start using flies that you’ve designed and created yourself on those long and cold wintery nights by the fire. The satisfaction is euphoric and completes you! The only thing that tops tricking a trout into taking your delightful presentation is serving it with a hand crafted bamboo fly rod, the quintessential moment in any trout bum’s dream.
Conditioning like in all sports plays an important role in enhancing one’s enjoyment and safety. The fly fisher can’t simply satisfy the soul and the mind, the body also has to be taken into consideration. After all your body is your vehicle to get to the contest, the game between you and your scaly competitor. The venue can be literally a walk in the park or it can be as challenging as climbing Everest. The degree of your physical fitness will determine where you can do battle, on your terms or his, on the most remote stretch of wilderness rarely if at all visited by a human soul or by the car park! Fly fishing is a complete sport and the complete angler is in top form!
The game plan, the strategy that the fly fisher has to devise is best based on ones skill and ability. Planning keeps the mind sharp and fit! Knowing where to go, when to go and how to get there is sometimes as much fun as being successful in your quest. Anticipation is a really underrated component in fly fishing, after all, that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching. You’ll never be disappointed when you are anticipating; it’s the one time everyone is always 100% successful! Cherish your time to dream and plan, whether you’re rich or poor it’s the ultimate equalizer.
Therapy - another reward when you go fly fishing. I can’t say its free, fly fishing costs money like everything else but what mother nature has to offer you can’t ever be rivaled in a room surrounded by four walls. Imagine going for a massage, relaxing and soothing; well in fly fishing, your masseuse is the water! Wading out into a river and being surrounded by a pulsating current gently massaging your legs and buttocks is pleasure in itself. Preferably the current isn’t so strong that it can sweep you away or too weak to do a good job. Choosing to correct flow goes back to the planning, fish like the perfect current as well, so when it’s just right you’re both content.
The definition of a tall tale has no better meaning than what a fly fisher can spin after returning from an outing. The telling of your adventures just gets better with time, but unlike a bottle of wine, it never gets empty. If there ever was a fountain of youth it’s the retelling of all the tales that flow from your mind of when you where younger, whether by a day or a decade. The past is a miraculous thing - it never gets too old, just older! Some of the worst trips that I had the misfortune to be on were immensely successful because of two important factors, the anticipation and afterwards, the story telling. Story telling is the great fixer. Your mishaps or successes are equally entertaining to the listener, the juicier the saga the more mouth watering it becomes! Ironically enough we’ll find humor in it all! Everyone will end up with a good laugh even if it’s the last one!
Finally, fly fishing knows no religion or politics; there are no boundaries or walls preventing you from exploring a better life. Through fly fishing you’ll connect with nature and the rest of the world and the people that make it up sharing a common passion and experiencing the same fulfillment.
The immortal Bob Dylan sang it best, “the times they are a changing” - you either go with the flow or “you’ll sink like a stone”. As you watch your snow melt take consolation in that fact that for someone else their rivers will rise! There is no triumph in that; it just is what it is so try to make the most of it!
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Indrek Kongats is an artist, traveler, outdoorsman, and business owner residing in Ellicottville. He operates River Dog Art Gallery in Houghton, NY, and his Breakaway Classic Adventures specializes in adventure travel destinations. Learn more about him at breakawayclassicadventures.com.