Library buddies
 

Stuck on hold while making a call, I noticed my wall of fishing books and
decided to count them to fight boredom .... over 140. These are uniformly
"how to" or "where to" books, the other type fishing venue, "fishing
stories," i.e. fiction in a fishing setting, has never appealed to me.

After ending my call, I made a quick, closer, look to see which book was
"best." Most of this library hasn't been touched since first reading,
although some volumes are used often as reference. I expected to end up
with such a reference book as my choice for "most useful" but was surprised
to settle on two volumes, each read a few times, but not lately.

"A Modern Dry Fly Code" by Vince Marinaro

"What the Trout Said" by Datus Proper



Why these choices? Both greatly affected HOW I think about fly fishing,
fly design, hatch matching, observation of naturals, etc etc, ... not just
WHAT I think.

The "what" in both books is largely out of date, but the "how" is what makes
"new" possible. It would be great to have access to real, live, fishing
buddies with the type of inquisitive minds these men had and a few "angling
mysteries" to work on.

Occasionally ( very rarely, actually ) I meet an experienced angler in my
travels that is still actively observing and trying to reach his own,
slightly new, solutions to angling problems, but most are simply tossing out
the fly sold them at the shop in the way it shows on the video. And, of
course they are catching fish, as the "big problems" are solved, with the
solutions available at any fly shop, and only little details remain to
allow improvement ....which is really kinda sad for us, imho.

Flipping through both books listed makes me wish for more "problems" in
angling, more situations where clearly feeding fish are damn hard to catch,
more reasons for observation, thought, and experimentation, more waters that
really deserve to be called "technical." These guys had a hell of a lot of
fun that isn't really available to us now .... now we're pretty much stuck
with just "catching fish."



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Library buddies
 

These guys had a hell of a lot of
fun that isn't really available to us now .... now we're pretty much stuck
with just "catching fish."




I disagree. When visiting strange waters, we immediately may be posed
with the great "what are they feeding on?" question. I found this out
on my trip to Montana this summer. Sometimes the lie makes a
challenging situation, or the spookiness of the fish. There are plenty
of days each season where I really have to work - the fun and rewarding
kind of work. My solutions to problems do not always originate from a book.

Pete Collin

Library buddies
 

"Peter A. Collin"

.. There are plenty
of days each season where I really have to work - the fun and rewarding
kind of work. My solutions to problems do not always originate from a
book.



Well sure ... observation and thought are still vital to success. It's
just a matter of degree and a matter of available resources when one finally
decides to do the work. And, of course, the best solutions can come from
intentionally NOT looking in the books, if the prerequisite observations are
accurately made ... since something "good but different" is very often
better than the "same old good" on modern streams.

The guy fishing a heavy trico spinner fall on Unnamed Creek with a #14 Humpy
( and a few such people are out there every day of the season ) is still
very frustrated and surely feels he has a real "angling problem" to be
solved. But he's probably fishing within a few dozen yards of someone
willing to give ( or sell ) "the solution" even if his own eyes remain
totally shut.

Unlike Marinaro, our Humpy tosser, today, does have lots of easy to access
resources and could be catching fish quickly .... and without any serious
personal leaps of creativity.

That said ... there is still PLENTY of room for better ( different, see
above ) solutions .. and probably always will be ...



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