Like many fishers I’ve been infected by a life-long fascination with water. Water that’s moving simply can’t be ignored. Moving water filled with the heady potential of fish to be fished over is a damned black hole. Fall in there my friend and you may never get out.
What child (of any age) hasn’t walked to the bank of the local crick, creek, stream or river and without conscious thought scanned the immediate area for a stick to throw in. Watching your newfound ‘boat’ float away on the current, bobbing and ducking in step with the flow, brings a smile even on the most trying of days.
Fly fishers, despite our sure wisdom that most of what trout consume are nymphal forms of insects mostly brown and about 3/8” of an inch in length, are as a flock consumed with things that float.
We tie mind-boggling arrays of floating patterns, from stunning imitations of reality to fantastical foam monsters, then coat them with goos, poos, magic elixirs and pixie dusts to make them float higher, longer, better. We nymph beneath near-indestructible floating bobbers (cough, gasp).
Fishers fish from a host of ‘boats’: float tubes, stand up paddle boards, driftboats, rafts of all shapes and sizes, jon boats, flats boats, canoes, kayaks, surf boards and even glittering bass boats (yawn).
Give me a cataraft or a McKenzie inspired drifter any day.
There’s nothing like the sensual glide of a drifter or fishing cat down a big western freestoner, dancing through the riffle runs, holding here and there, eddying out to land a fish or rerig gear. Quiet, steady, comfortable and room for two coolers; a veritable fishers’ heaven.
I’ve even been accused of enjoying rowing as much as fishing – rowing is a dance that done well folds seamlessly into a fishy day (and done poorly is a frickin’ nightmare). Manning the sticks makes you engage fully with the river; you’re always watching, ooching here and schooching over there. (Sit in the back of the boat next time and watch a great oarsman at work; you’ll see easy, quiet strokes, a route planned far ahead and eyes that never stop moving.)
On most days I’d rather even eat in the boat ala the Headhunters winter guide lunch. Let the oars dangle and break out the grub.
Hell, even having a boat in tow can make you smile.
I like things that float.
