Given my recent confession as a happy brownliner – on behalf of Team Chi Wulff I’d like to heartily thank and pay tribute to the Brownline Nation.
Writing those words – paying tribute – set the little wheels to spinning inside my head.
tribute – noun; an act, statement or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect or admiration.
What a better way to pay tribute than to use the Godfather – a timeless story that is anchored by the concept of respect.
[There is a risk, however, in offering said tribute.
One of the risks of penning a tribute to such a diverse horde of fly fishers is that invariably someone, someone no doubt important to the group, gets left out.
Alas, that’s not my intent – we’re simply saying thanks to those in the Brownline Nation who’ve had a lasting influence on our approach to fly fishing. To those members of the Brownline Nation who aren’t on this list – no slight intended, and there simply aren’t that many great women characters in the movie….]
The Don
In our humble opinion this simply has to be Keith Barton, the diabolical genius behind Singlebarbed. KB fits the role perfectly – he’s ‘well-seasoned’, spins off quotable one liners by the bucketful, is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and wade through the muck to get it done and he’s commanded the respect of legions of brown and blueliners alike. He even has a legitimate ‘front-business’ to cover his dealings in the brownline fly-tying underworld.
We’ve been reading Singlebarbed more or less since it’s inception and still do pretty much every day. Last year we had the pleasure of working with KB on a short-lived project and found him to be even more hilarious in real life than what you read on Singlebarbed. Even the WSJ paid its respects. We salute the Don….
Michael
Casting Jean-Paul Lipton (aka the roughfisher) in the role of Michael Corleone is another no brainer. Think about it – he has to be close to and trusted by the Don – JPL and KB have been trading materials and fly tying secrets for years. JPL is battle tested just as Michael was; hell, being a fly fishing guide is battle enough some days AND JPL puts up with Minnesota winters as well. KB and JPL will sit down and have a conversation just like in the clip in 20 years.
Tom Hagen
This was another easy one. Tom Hagen was the only non-blood relative to rise to the inner circle of the Corleone family. He was smart as a whip, quick on his feet, smooth as silk, loyal as a family member and highly skilled at his work. In the world of the Brownline Nation who else could this be but Pete McDonald blogging at Fishing Jones. We’re looking forward to Pete’s book project and are still trying to get him to come fishing with us in Montana.
Sonny (Santino)
What can you say about Sonny? Don’t think about how Sonny met his untimely end – think about how he lived. He was feisty, almost insanely loyal to the family, pretty damned upbeat most of the time, a font of quotable one-liners, perhaps a bit impulsive but another guy willing to roll up his sleeves and get it done. He was the kind of guy you just couldn’t ignore when he came into the room.
We think Michael Gracie fits the roll perfectly for the Brownline Nation. Unlike Sonny, MG is impressively multidimensional writing about technology, finance and fly fishing at MichaelGracie.com.
The Caporegime (Clemenza, Luca, Al, Rocco, etc…..)
The caporegime were high ranking members of the family who headed a team of soldiers; they held major status and influence in the organization. They were highly skilled at what they did, afraid of nothing, sometimes did the dirty work that needed to get done and loyal to a fault (well, maybe except for Sal….).
We also like these guys because they loved to eat – as proven by not only the ‘leave the gun, take the cannoli’ line but as seen in the clip as well. Who could this be but Alex, Kyle and Aaron over at Fat Guy Fly Fishing? Alex is damned fine photographer – see his work at The Landeen Photography Blog.
Apollonia
Not to leave out the fairer sex members of the Brownline Nation, we salute the numerous fly fishing gals over at FlyFisherGirl.com. They are one of if not THE highest-powered collective of feminine fly fishing skill in the modern world, and they all know the days of the week frontwards and backwards. They’ll kick your fly fishing ass any day.
Thanks Brownline Nation, we salute you.
