My Love For Fly FishingNot Just An Infatuation
My love for fly fishing is not just an infatuation!
I just returned from the 2009 Fly Fishing Film Tour. I laughed, I cried. I realized I was in love. Real love, not just that… “I spent a lot of money on gear so I better use it” kind of superficial love, but a “now I have a fire burning in me that I can’t put out” kind of love.
I’ve seen most of the films featured in the 2009 Fly Fishing Film Tour - here and there at different trade shows,
so I can’t really say what brought on this certainty. It may be that I spent more time on the water last year than I ever have in my life. Perhaps that I am able to do it all on my own now – I love fishing with someone by my side but I’m just as happy to go solo and control the experience from route to release. My love for fly fishing has me spending more time in forums, reading blogs and magazines, and writing in my own journal about my experiences – fly fishing from a woman's perspective. And it's possible that the flames burning my heart were fanned by the Warren-Miller type vibe; a room full of passionate pursuers with love for the tug, all in one room, reacting in unison to the awesome digital display.
I caught myself several times – my hand involuntarily flying to my mouth in the universal reaction to awe. I threw my head back and laughed out-loud in tandem with the on-screen guffaws of a grown man letting himself react with the wonderment and delight of a child as a Steelhead sucked his dead-drift dry fly off the surface of the water and rocketed upwards to perform gainers at the end of his line.
My heart pounded when a Kiwi god, I mean guide, informed me in his thick New Zealand brogue how inspired he was by the waters he fished and then he showed me his skill and I had the overwhelming feeling that I would someday know his pleasure first-hand. Fly fishing New Zealand is in my future! (I actually didn’t understand a Kiwi word he said linguistically, but I could FEEL him, resulting in clear interpretation.)
And then I saw Brian O'Keefe's film for the third time and this time I couldn’t sit still. Wanderlust settled in and I wanted to get on my BlackBerry and call, email or text him and find out how I could get involved. I want to be Brian when I grow up.
I was moved. Moved to tears, (I actually wiped one from my eye when an 18 year old released her catch to the pristine waters of Bristol Bay and basked in her Daddy’s praise.) Then, ‘Whitney’ caught a Marlin on a fly-rod. You go girl, I really can’t expound on your accomplishment - it speaks for itself.
This is no infatuation.
I’ve been fly fishing for about six years and I’ve never even had a relationship last this long. I’m now to the place where my love for fly fishing will have me out of my mind; chasing fish around the world with a long stick, regardless of my relationship, financial, or professional status.
I am a fly-fisher.
I’m in love.
This is no infatuation.
Take me to fly fishing equipment reviews.
How to tie a fly fishing knot.
