While I’ve yet to see any evidence provided by today’s theoretical physicists, there’s no question that distortions in the time-space continuum occur more commonly on or near great trout streams and rivers. Someone even wrote about this concept (sort’ve) this last week in The Atlantic of all places, though more on that later.
I’ll never forget the first time it actually happened to me (somewhere on the map above in fact).
One Labor Day weekend several years ago (damn, try more like 23 or 24 years ago) I had ventured to Jackson Hole with several friends and their families. We rented a big condo out west of town, over on the ‘West Bank’ of the Snake, and generally worked hard at playing the role of annoying Utah tourists.
One morning I managed to sneak away with one of the 13 or 14 year old novice fly fishing teens in the group to fish. Ignoring the ‘Posted No Trespassing’ sign nearby we navigated the three strand barbed wire fence and quickly hoofed it 20 minutes upstream to get out of sight on a nearby sweet little (here and forever otherwise unnamed) trib of the Snake.
It was fairly early (630ish) on a clear-skied, soon to be sunny Wyoming day without a rising trout or bug in sight. The stream was only about 40 feet or so wide at its broadest, and for the most part a long set of riffles as far as we could see as it tumbled out of the nearby hills below the ski resort. There was just enough room to fish together and each work half the river.
My mentor at the time was a huge fan of the mighty caddis fly; a quick look at submerged rocks along the bank revealed hoards of attached cream-colored caddis pupa.
This was back in the day prior to the synthetic revolution in tying materials; the best match in the box was a ‘chamois caddis’. We both tied one on and I showed young grasshopper how to swing one down and across.
All was quiet for about 20 minutes; then it happened.
Just as if the proverbial switch had been thrown, we began to catch fish. Fish after fish after fish . Nothing huge – they were in fact pretty much cookie cutter fat little 8-12 inch rainbows. Though it couldn’t have been true it seemed as if every swing produced another hit.
The morning stands as one the most bizarre experiences I’ve had on a river; step – cast – swing – fish. Step – cast – swing – fish. Over and over and over.
On one hand I wasn’t surprised when young grasshopper announced we’d topped the 100 fish mark; half-jokingly I chided him that counting easy fish can break the spell.
Ten minutes later it was over.
It felt as if the ‘magic window’ lasted about half an hour; truth be told my $5 disposable digital watch announced just over three hours had passed since our first cast. I distinctly remember standing there in the steam thinking that simply can’t be true.
Looking back now it’s easy to see that we’d experienced a rent in the very fabric of time. Though I’d like to think that it happens more often on the freestones of the northern Rockies, without a doubt the phenomenon occurs worldwide.
And while it’s much more intriguing and mysterious to think we stumbled across some sort of mysterious time portal in northwest Wyoming that day, a recent Stanford study discussed in The Atlantic in Study: Awe-Inspiring Experiences Change Our Perception of Time offers a more down to earth explanation:
The results lined up perfectly with the study’s founding premise (which was probably unsurprising to the study’s authors). They show that experiencing a moment of awe can indeed alter your perception of time — specifically, it makes you feel like you have more time.
Referencing current research, the study offers several explanations for this phenomenon. Perhaps most integral, though, to this study is the fact that awe puts the beholder in the moment, which can augment his or her sense of time.
Maybe that’s what it is about fly fishing, being ‘in the moment’, that makes time seem to slow down to a more comfortable pace. Most fishers find the river environs to be an awesome place (frankly, if you don’t, you probably shouldn’t be there) and our perception of time spent there really is different.
We could all use a little more awe in our day; here’s to your finding some on the river this week.
As for me, I’m looking for another genuine time portal on the Snake….
