A turn in my winter reading has me thinking about summer today… Nineteen ninety-four and I am sitting in my Cumberland Valley fly shop talking flies and fishing with Ed Koch and Harrison Steeves. We are all feeling good about their new book “Terrestrials”, a wonderful collaboration between one of the Letort Regulars and one of the new innovators on the fly-tying scene.
Those were truly the good old days, when terrestrial season offered our paramount dry fly fishing along the Falling Spring Branch. Sadly, Ed is no longer with us, and I closed my shop more than two decades ago. I understand that Harry is still going, and I hope he still gets to wet a line in his favorite streams.
Thinking about those days of course has me thinking about tying terrestrial patterns, even with the cold wind blowing across the snowfields here in the Catskills on a fifteen-degree afternoon.
There are bodies and underwings sitting here with glue setting, waiting to be finished into an adult version of my Woodland Hopper, a fly that cannot be expected to have it’s first trial upon bright water until August. The little “baby” version of this fly has enjoyed a couple of seasons of use now and accounted for some terrific browns! Reading Ed and Harry’s reminiscences got me to thinking about the Baby Woodland fly and spurred me to sit down and tie these adults.
There is a lot in that book to digest, and it inspires thought about terrestrial flies and fishing just as it did thirty-two summers ago, when the authors sat down with me to tell tales and share smiles.
I would love to be able to sit down with those fine gentleman once more, to laugh about my experiences as a transplanted limestone spring terrestrial fisherman who haunts the big trout waters of the Catskills. Angling is timeless, and the great store of written works that define our history allow us all to look back and savor the same inspiration which motivated and charmed our fellow fly fishers, whether decades or centuries ago.
Bright Waters Catskill 