On Rivers and the Memory of Rivers

Today, I spent the better part of the afternoon tossing a pair of nymphs to eager fish that seemed to know winter is on its way. As I worked downstream and fought off the cold and the gusting wind, I found myself thinking of another day on another river.

I was fishing with Shawn Brillon, Bob Mead, and Paul Ptalis. We were jaw-jacking and laughing more than fishing, a wonderful day in all the ways that matter. Foremost in my memory is a respectable brown that Paul took on a greased Hornberg. I suppose you had to be there, but watching that fish fall all over itself while trying to engulf Paul’s skating streamer … well … it was absolutely hysterical.

The day stands out in my memory as it was the last time the four of us fished together. Paul passed away last November, after losing a prolonged battle with cancer. He was a talented fisherman, a transcendent tyer of Atlantic salmon flies, a patient tutor, and a good man. Today, as autumn gave up its ghost, I couldn’t help but think of Paul and his fish.

I suppose the day will come when my friends will reminisce about the time they spent on the water with me. If I’m very lucky, they’ll remember how much I appreciated the river and my time with them.

I hope that memory makes them smile as much as I did today.

Here, you’ll find a video of Paul releasing his Hornberg fish.

Here, you'll find the American Cancer Society.

An Oldie But Goodie

I love old stuff.

Pictured in the photo is the prize of my Orvis CFO collection. It was manufactured in 1979 by the Hardy company, and was the first of the bar-stock CFOs. All previous models were made of cast aluminum. One thousand reels were made, 500 in silver and 500 in gold. Mine is gold, number 342. Not a mark on her ...

I actually had this reel up on Ebay about a month or so ago, and was offered $700.00. I couldn't go through with it. I ended the auction early, and put baby-girl back on the shelf. Glad I did ...

Slow Days: FGFF

Alex Landeen over at Fat Guy Fly Fishing has written a short but poignant piece about those "close but no cigar" days. It's well worth the thirty seconds it will take to read.


You'll find the specific entry here, but the entire blog is terrific. Enjoy ...