People of Fly Fishing: 10 Questions with Tom Sadler (Part 2)

With our sincerest heartfelt apologies to Tom for the delay in posting the second part of his interview, it is with great pleasure that we post the following today.

A hearty tip of the hat to Tom and his wife regarding their marriage at $3 Bridge on the Madison (image below courtesy of TS et al) as well as for his efforts with Tenkara (images below also courtesy of TS).

Well done.

We know you have an interest in river and stream access issues from prior correspondence. What do you think are the biggest issues facing fly fishers and sportsmen these days?

The legal right to access and use of public land is big deal. That was the fight in Montana with HB309, it is the fight in Utah and now in Virginia, and in Pennsylvania before that, people trying to assert private rights on public resources.

The other side of the coin is the privatization of wild lands. To quote Hal Herring in his excellent piece Road to Nowhere, “What we are witnessing with the demand to dismiss any new discussion of wilderness or roadless public lands is part of the tremendous move in our country to privatize wildlife and to make the quality hunting and fishing available only to those who can afford to buy land and rivers, lease hunting rights, to bring hunting and fishing into line with the other privileges that are the sole province of the wealthy.”

While access is important, the single biggest issue remains habitat. Everything flows from that. Habitat equals opportunity. We lose habitat every day for a variety of reasons and every time that happens we lose a place to hunt, fish, hike, kayak or what have you.

The quality of our fishing and hunting depends on habitat. The lack of access becomes more acute as we lose habitat and have to put more pressure places we can go.

The outdoor recreation industry depends on habitat, it is the venue where we take our clients and where they use the products the industry makes.

What sparked your interest in Tenkara?

I have to credit Craig Mathews and Yvon Chouinard for that. Chouinard wrote a piece in one of the fly-fishing magazines about his interest in simplifying his life and how he had rediscovered tenkara. That sounded pretty good to me so I called Craig and asked him about it. He totally encouraged me to try it. I fell in love with the technique; it is magnificent for small water.

The more time I spend with a tenkara rod the more I enjoy it. The simplicity of the set up and the effectiveness of the drifts you get have made me a tenkara convert and advocate.

Garden and Gun did a piece on tenkara called Whisper Fishing. I fished with the author, Donovan Webster, and he did an excellent job of catching the essence and effectiveness of tenkara. Of course Michael JN Bowles’ photo’s of the brook trout are wonderful (ok, I think seeing my mug is pretty cool too).

It is a great teaching tool as well. Kirk Deeter wrote about it in Why a Tenkara May Be The Best Set-up For Teaching a Young Angler in his Field & Stream Fly Talk blog. Deeter lays out a compelling case for tenkara as a teaching tool whether you are young or old.

So the recognition is coming for this style of fishing and that is great to see.

We’re assuming you have opportunity to fish around the country a bit; where’s your favorite travel or non-home water?

I have been very fortunate in that regard. My dad loved to fish and he took me all over the country. I grew up fishing in New England on big lakes and small streams. It was glorious. I still have a special fondness for the Moosehead Lake country of northern Maine.

I love the area in and around the Yellowstone National Park. I got married on the Madison River at $3 bridge 5 years ago so that is holy water for me. The smaller streams around Yellowstone country are wonderful and I love catching native cutts in them.

I am also partial to the North Branch of the Au Sable in Michigan. For the last four years I have had the privilege to lead a fly-fishing program, the MSU Fly Gals, affiliated with Michigan State University. We run the program on the North Branch and it is one of my favorite fly-fishing trips each year. It is spectacular brook trout and brown trout fishing and a great teaching venue.

What do you consider to be your home water and what do you really appreciate about it?

The Rapidan River in the Shenandoah National Park is as close to home water as it gets for me. It is perfect tenkara water, easy to access but also has parts where you can slip away and not get fished over. It has some wonderful history as well. If I can only take someone mountain brook trout fishing in one place then I take to them to the Rapidan every time.

If you want a sense of what the Rapidan looks like check out these photos on the Garden & Gun website.

Recognizing your AFFTA connections, what do you think about banning felt soles?

Not speaking on behalf of AFFTA but personally, I think banning felt is goofy. It is a regulatory approach to an educational problem. You can’t regulate common sense.

Clearly the thinking on felt and rubber soles for wading boots is evolving. Felt was an easy scapegoat but there were plenty of places where invasives can and will hide. People who thought all they needed to do was not wear felt and they wouldn’t be contributing to the spread of aquatic invasives were kidding themselves.

Now everyone knows there is no silver bullet and we all need to clean and dry our gear and the other vectors of contamination so we quit transporting junk from one stream to another.

If you could inspire fly fishers to do just one thing from a conservation standpoint in 2011, what would it be?

Make your voice heard. When an opportunity arises to author an op-ed or letter to the editor, sign on to an advertisement, speak with a reporter or blogger, or take other action don’t wait for the other guy to do it. You need to do speak up.

If you are in the fly-fishing trade it is even more important to be heard. As someone who has spent 20 years incorporating my love for fly-fishing into my conservation advocacy work I firmly believe our industry can make a difference. The men and women in the fly-fishing business can give an economic voice to local, regional and national conservation challenges.

This is the worse time for conservation I have ever seen in 30 years. I don’t care whether you label it politics or culture, we are seeing how our elected officials value our community and what we know is essential for hunting and fishing to survive in this country.

If the hunting and fishing community does not step up and express outrage over this assault on the very foundation of our traditions then we only have ourselves to blame.

Tags: People of Fly Fishing

Tagged as: People of Fly Fishing, The Good Guys