Taking the day today, so I am not on the river, though my heart and mind is always there. I was just outside though, casting my DreamCatcher AK-47 model, spurred by thoughts of it’s namesake.
Years ago, when I first met Wyatt Dietrich along the Falling Spring to cast a few of his beautiful bamboo fly rods, he brought along one unfinished model. Guides were taped on, as Wyatt was still working out their optimum spacing, and the blank had just a base coat of varnish. He told me this was a new taper, a 7′-10″ two-piece rod for a five or six fly line, and he had a plan for this first one.
Upon completion, he followed through with that plan, shipping the rod to one Mr. A.K. Best in Colorado as a gift. He asked only that Best fish the rod and let the maker know what he thought of it. I had met A.K. Best, for he was a famous tyer of trout flies, at the first Fly Tyers Symposium. I had taken a class with Archie and found him as fine a fellow as he was a fly tyer. I told Wyatt I thought he would be favorably impressed with the rod, and he was.
This all came to mind as I was thinking about A.K. Best and his famous fishing buddy, writer John Gierach, who sadly passed away last week. If an angler did not know of Archie Best from his own books, he certainly got to know him well through Gierach’s work. I was saddened when I read the news about John’s passing, for I like many thousands of fly fishers have enjoyed his fishing tales over the past thirty years.
My own simple, private showing of loss and respect came early Sunday morning, when I sat down in the quiet of predawn and read through his classic “Fishing Bamboo” one more time.
I believe I will fish that A.K. 47 rod tomorrow, hoping to find a good trout on the fin, and I wanted to feel the bend of it with a Wulff Bamboo Special fly line. It was a perfect match. A simple ritual to send my condolences? Yes, on an angler’s wind.
I did spend some time here at my tying bench this afternoon, though not a single fly was produced. Initially I had to pluck a new supply of Wood duck flank feathers, filling the small plastic bag that nestles in my travel kit. Our Fly Tyers Guild Roundtable is coming up on Saturday, and I have to be sure I have the hooks and materials along for the patterns I decide to tie.
I picked up three packages of big-eyed dry fly hooks too, a place I have taken refuge while battling difficulties with my depth perception on the rivers this season. A size 20 olive dun spends a lot of time tied to my tippet during these last weeks of the dry fly season, and I had used up a number of those hooks putting in a store of patterns.
It seems we will have some wind tomorrow, enough to add some additional tricks to fishing such small dry flies, and to push the cool wind through lighter clothing. The first chills of the autumn season are felt more intensely after a long summer.
I have been spending considerable time considering rod tapers, flaming the culm versus oven tempering the strips, and various ideas for my winter rod project. I may have solved the taper question by looking to one of my friend Tom Whittle’s designs, published in the wonderful book “Split and Glued by Vincent C. Marinaro” that he and Bill Harms authored some years ago. Tom made my Shenk Tribute Rod back in 2021 and his taper designs are great performers.
Well, the afternoon has slipped away, and evening is upon us. I am still not used to these 6:30 sunsets, shadows on the river at two o’clock and all these signs of the deepening year…
Bright Waters Catskill 