"Tom Nakashima" wrote

I remember one recent
trip I gave a fly to a stranger, about 15 min. later he hooked up as I had
not a single strike. Later he came by and offered me the fish. I just
smiled and told him to keep it and commented on his great presentation
skills.

One of last season's greatest highlights for me occurred on the Henry's Fork
just above the log jam.

It was late in what had been a slow day, and there was only one fish to be
found rising. I found him first and was sneaking into casting position
when a group of four or five anglers from Japan arrived. One of them had
seen the fish from afar and was visibly disappointed to see me slip into the
water near it. Their group split up, looking forlorn and discouraged, and
searched the area for rising heads, the angler that had seen "my" fish sat
on the bank near me and eyed each rise with clear envy.

I put a few casts over the fish and got him to rise, a take I missed. I
figured he would be put down, but, no, he continued to feed.

My Japanese friend was still watching and it occurred to me that I had been
given my chance and didn't deserve to land that fish, so I said pointing
with my rod at the rise, "Here, you try him, he's too smart for me." The
language barrier made this difficult and one of his friends with better
English joined in to help. Soon I was backing out carefully and the
Japanese angler was approaching the prey. About 1/2 hour later he hooked
that fish, a nice one about 18 inches. As he netted it I gave him a
"thumbs up" sign hoping it was universal and didn't mean something nasty in
Japang. What little English he knew came out then, over and over,
"Thank You, thank you, thank you."

The next day I ran into one of the group who recognized me ( it's easy I'm
whale sized and ugly ) and went out of his way to come thank me again, for
his friend. That fish was the only one caught by their group that slow
day ( they did better the next day :-) and it had made the whole group much
more enthusiast as their 'dream trip" looked like a nightmare until then.
I was given a few very lovely flies tied with artificial winging material
available only in Japan.

In reality, if we're honest, the major reason for generosity is because it
makes US feel better ... this case certainly worked that way ... it was hard
to "give up" that fish and get skunked that evening, but those "thank yous"
were far worth more than yet another landed fish.

Oh, and I always give flies to anyone that asks me what to use, if I have
any left to give ...... again, really for myself ..... my 6 decades have
made me a firm believer in 'Karma' .... what goes around comes around, not
always immediately or from the same person, but often enough to justify the
$0.30 a homebuilt fly costs, as investment.