Articles - Staff Inflections
Look for new articles every month from staff, guides, and other noted authors
on fly fishing related topics. Articles on where anglers have fished (near and far),
interesting stories about fishing our waters, and general musings about fly fishing related
topics.
The Gift
There is an old saying that I use in the context of fishing that says, “If I don’t honor the gift because I thought I couldn’t fish, that wouldn’t diminish the fisher within me.” Winter is a good time to reflect. In fact our bodies help inherently. Our metabolism slows down, reflective of our environment - we quiet, rest more (medicate more if needed), turn the music on low, tie flies and dream about fishing.
The sound of moving water; the way it contemplates a fallen tree and the sweet spot it fills just over the top, where the banks narrow and deepen, the place where it separates and holds together, where it gives life and takes life, where it drifts apart and then becomes a part, where all things exist and all that I know to be true.
I fish not for title, position, superiority, or worth. Nor – for allotment, amount, number sum, or total. I know that I don’t because once I was found with nothing in my net, dry. Where everything I had floated away, not unlike during a runoff or the change in the river after the winters’ ice moves and manipulates. I was left stuck inside a muddy bank where over time my bones were washed clean, and slowly I emerged. I exist and all THAT exists in me.
Or perhaps…Now is the moment when I should really consider medication. And HEY - just in time for Christmas!
Jennifer Buck
