I was sitting in the living room just now, reading a bit, when I realized it was getting on to five o’clock. Looking out, there was still plenty of light in the sky, part of the tangible change as the days lengthen gradually toward spring. It wasn’t that long ago that it was nearly dark at this time of day.
Though the days are actually growing longer, it seems somehow easier to pass them than it has all winter. Having the goal so much nearer is a factor in that perception, as is the continual march of the years. My paternal grandmother lived to be 96, and we used to talk about the passage of time, and its habit of quickening as we get older. I remember her saying that “the years passed like lightning”.
As an angler, I get the opportunity to move back and forth in time so to speak. When I tie a Catskill dry fly in the vintage style, or thread my fly line through the guides of a classic bamboo rod, I step back, perhaps fifty to one hundred years in thought and deed.
When I cast one of these fine old rods, I bridge the gap in time as it bounces with the lively energy of a trout as it did when it was young; the rod is the conduit, a fragment of yesterday, the trout very much alive and running wild with the energy of today. This is but a part of the special magic that graces those of us who angle with vintage tackle, that chance to live in both the past and the present for those golden moments when a trout takes the fly.
Memory is one of the most cherished gifts of a life spent in angling, and there are times when I pause to notice the special beauty of the afternoon light upon the water and wonder if what I feel might be some connection to the past. Is there some of the life energy of a past owner of the vintage rod and reel I carry still there in the golden bamboo?
Bright Waters Catskill 