Pointless - Fly Fishing Zen

A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.

Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;

Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.

Ikkyu Sojun

A near solstice sunset on Henry's Fork (lots of bugs, not a single rise)

What is the point of fishing with hand tied dry flies cast with bamboo fly rods. I like doing it but, all around us is proof that there are simpler more effective ways to fish for trout, and not just ways to fish, but more effective ways to fly-fish. This is accepting that Euro-nympher's are fly fishers, which people do and that is cool with me. These nympher's often head to the river with expectations that they will hook and land numbers that astound me, 50 or more fish in a day. They have seemed to require far less effort to catch these fish, than I seem to use to catch far less, but they use equipment and techniques that are more closely related to a tournament walleye fisherman's set-up than to the rig I am using to cast a size 14 caddis to a rising trout. 

The nympher's flies are/have become essentially jigs, with heavy weighted heads, and often using multiple flies at a time. The fly line has been removed from the equation all together in favor of some straight heavy mono. I wont go into the cast and presentation, both take skill, but lack in art. With this approach the trout seems reduced to dumb feeding machine mindlessly chowing along the river's bottom. That approach isn't my approach, but why not? How am I different? What am I looking for out here?

Well, a few weeks back I was in Montana. I was traveling for work, visiting companies that are make concrete products and talking with them about other methods and equipment to use in making such concrete. This work takes me all over the country, and I mostly love it. Some trips take me to cities like Chicago and Detroit, but also others to places such Portland, Bozeman, Missoula, Escanaba, and until recently Montreal and Quebec.

Anyway, since I was already in Montana for work, I figured it only made sense to pack a rod or two and a bring a few flies along... and as luck would have it, I got to do a little fishing. Here and there. At the end of the day... if i could find time... and to be honest, to start with it was hard to actually even get a couple hours in.

On this trip I fished after working each day and the my travels had brought me to such rivers as Idaho's Henry's Fork and the North Fork of the Coeur D'Alene, along with several famous Montana rivers including the Madison, the Gallatin, Clarks Fork, the Flat Head, and to the Big Hole, but as with most sales/fishing trips, I was always on the move from plant to plant and town to town. an this trip started with meetings and evening plans for the first few days. Though the trip covered over 4 thousand miles and states, it seemed to center itself around the town of Butte, Montana

Butte is the location of the Sweetgrass Bamboo Flyrod Shop. Right downtown too, which is a bit unexpected after seeing where Glenn used to keep shop in Twin Bridges. Glenn has been building fly rods out of Tonkin Cane since the 1950s. Working at and eventually running the Winston Bamboo rod shop. Eventually leaving Winston to start his own shop, Sweetgrass, with a crew of great partners (including Jerry Kustich).

Today, Butte is where Glenn Brackett and crew build both classic and inventive bamboo fly rods.  I made two stops at Sweetgrass on my trip out west. The first was to drop off a tip section that needed some repair, and meet Glenn Brackett face to face. I've known his name for 30 years, since I was a teenager. 

In my twenties I met Jerry Kustich while I was working at a fly shop in Green Bay. He came through on a book tour about he and his brother's, Rick, new book (at the time) on Great Lakes Steelhead Fly Fishing.  Jerry is a major part of Sweet Grass along with Glenn. Which really doesn't playout as Jerry was not there nor expected to be. Anyway, for those reasons I stopped in to see Glenn on my second day in Montana.

Glenn Bracket - Butte, MT

It was great to meet Glenn and see his shop. He kept up the work of building rods while I poked about the place. I brought in a rod that I wanted some minor repairs on, and after looking it over glen gave me a tour and an education on working with bamboo (Tonkin Cane). we also talked a little fishing and of dry fly prospects. Glenn offer some key advice on technique, specifically always trying to get directly below (in the same current seem), he also spoke about how the water temperatures in the mid-fifties which we were experiencing at the moment, is the key to good fishing and would last for maybe only a little more than a week. Simple and clear observations but also thought worthy, while still pretty self explanatory.

On my next stop at the shop nearly a week later Glenn hit me with a real mind blower. I was in to pick up my new fly rod, a 6'6" pent 3/4 wt 2 pc 2 tips with the name "Hawkmoon" on it. I think Glenn liked the name, and he was curious about its origins. so was I... but histories are hard to come by. he showed me the rod and it was just a beautiful as I could have hoped. A honey Blonde Blank and ruby red wraps the color of a cherry. The hardware is bright and silver. The reel seat...Alder. It is a finely made fly rod and it functions very well.

Glenn and I stepped out to cast to rod on the street in front of the shop. we were testing whether a Cortland Sylk DT4 or DT3 was the better line for this rod. we went with the DT4 but now I'm looking to get the DT3 Peach for it too. Any way, it was while we we throwing the lines that Glenn mentioned that he really didn't like using hooks that much any more, so he was cutting the points off of his flies so that the fish could eat the fly and maybe feel a poke and a tug, but would in all likelihood never have to endure a long fight or being landed, all you need to give up is the epic fight and proof of your fine accomplishment.

The Hawkmoon with a Southern Colorado Brown

I now remember that I had been telling him about a big rainbow I had hooked on the Big hole a few days earlier. One of many fish I had hooked, but truly memorable all the same. when the fish rose just off the bank to an Elk Hair Caddis it was a sizable eat, a subtle boil that moved a lot of water. On the first jump I saw the red flash of a rainbow, and rainbows love to jump. My brain thought this might be a 20" fish, so maybe it was 18". this the fish took off down stream and we were into a long hard fight. I had the fish to my feet a few times but could get it in the net before the hook came loose and the fish swam free.

Glenn Brackett fishing some water he likes.

I told Glenn this story and he said "That's the perfect release, that the way to do it", which is what a lot of people say but he then began to explain that this was where he was at in his fishing. Just clipping off the points and enjoying the experience without needing the endgame. I was and am really impressed.

1st night Fishing the Hawkmoon

Maybe Lee Wulff made a statement about allowing the fish the sanctuary of the water beneath the surface by fishing a dry fly, or something like that. I'm not sure it was actually Lee Wulff who said that but you get the jist. I have been moving in that direction more and more over the last few years. I prefer fishing dry flies to streamers, or nymphs. I don't love nymphs, and I despise hopper-dropper rigs. 

No... I am a one fly guy and that fly should float.

Sure, I will sometime salvage an otherwise busted day by swinging a wet-fly or stripping a streamer, but it leaves something left to be desired in the aesthetics and in the playing of the game. Fishing a dry fly is often a one-on-one or mano a pescar game. you are presenting your fly to a fish, it is not a chuck-it and chance-it situation. This is dialing in on an individual, not a situation, often you will be watching the individual fish and you will have to adapt to its individual idiosyncrasies (personality). I love this, and to give it up in the name of more or bigger fish is not that appealing. If dry fly fishing is not happening, why bother going fishing. Or maybe Go fishing and fish dryflies whether they work or not. I have done alot of this. However, Fishermen are also famous for our patience, and I can spend a day or two tying stimulator, or Sparkle duns until things are looking good again.

To be honest, part of the joy of the whole game is timing. You gotta get there at the right time.

Don't be late. Don't leave too early. What's the moon phase? When is a green drake spinner fall actually supposed happen? Do Tricos seriously exist? What about Salmon flies? I haven't really slept in days. Does the sun ever actually set around here? Timing really is everything. 

On a big western trip, time is usually slipping by so fast and there is never enough, but mining out the precious moments is a fun and crazy dance that is preserved in a collage of your memory of the trip.

Nice Brown from small creek with a 7'9" Sweetgrass 5wt quad

But back to the point I was angling at, if I can fore go the pleasure of catching fish in favor of waiting until I can catch them on my terms, I wonder if I could give up the actual catching in favor of a more harmonious experience. But, I wonder how important is the end game to me? How critical is it to fight, land and photograph a fish. 

Maybe I, like Glenn, can learn to cherish the things I love most about the sport, like a trout noses sticking up out of the water, and casting away those things that limit my enjoyment, such as hurting fish. However even as I right this, I know I haven't reached the point of pointless fishing, but I think I will be very happy when I reach that day.