"BudE" managed to spew a response in
rec.outdoors.fishing on Sat 17 Nov 2007 08:42:51a:

I'm getting older and more forgetful. Hope when I go fising I'll
remember the way home. I'm primarily interested in spinning for pan
fish. I have a 7' flyrod that I bought about 30 years ago for $2.00.
It still casts that line fine at least in the backyard.

Good enough.

Rip a feather out of your pillow, twist a little thread around it so it
doesn't fall off right away, flip it out where there may be fish and get
yourself hooked up.

You can't catch one unless you have a hook in the water.

Some say, "Basic physics!"

I say, "Basic Fishin'"

You can spend years just dealing with the "ART" of fly fishing.

Or you can catch fish.

The "ART" makes itself evident the more you deal with fish.

The getting out and doing
will force you to learn the "ART".

The learning is the part that makes it all worth it.

Standing waist deep in running water that is -2 so that you can keep warm
enough 'cause the air is -20.

Holding your rod in the water more than you cast just to de-ice the guides

for the next cast.

He's there

You see HIM

This next cast will bring HIM to you

You know it, like you know the way back to the car.

A little higher into the tail-out should put that Squamish Poacher right in
his face.

You watch, through your polarised glasses, as your pretty pink offering
drifts past HIS nose.

Refused, you begin stripping line back for the next cast.

*******!

Turns and takes it at the last second.

The last two rolls of line rip out of your hand, flipping that new neoprene
glove into the river.

Screw the glove, FISH ON!!!!

He rips a big hole in the run you've been casting to and despite your best
efforts gets into the lower run.

It's do or die time.

Quickly twisting up the knot at the top of your waders,

You step off the cliff.

It's not as cold as you thought it would be as the gin-clear water closes
over your head.

You pop up like a cork, blowing like a beluga whale,

determined to kill that fish.

Amazing how fast those rocks show up in your face.

FEET_UP!

Thank God for 7mm neoprene or I may have to adopt any future children!

On my knees in the shallows now, line's still taught,

Fellow fishers laughing and getting the hell out of the way

Short struggle to beach HIM.

Adipose fin intact

Bless HIM

Wave to buddy, still on the cliff.

Climb back, try again.

Old fart near the hole asks,"Do it again?"

In a heart beat!

As I re-rig for the next big strike.

Bruce



PS:

You can catch all the trout in the world.

On the greatest fly rods on the planet.

There just isn't any way to explain
what it feels like to catch that

"Silver Bullet"

on a fly-rod of your own design

A fly you tied, just for a fish like this

and a leader, knotted up with a micrometer
to put that fly in that buggers face!

I hunt fish.

It sucks to try to fish in Northern Alberta.

Even the pike, big as they are, taking a minnow fly can't give you half the
thrill a five pound steelhead will give you on anything you feed him.

They don't call him the "Silver Bullet" for nothing.