The Literary Fly Fisher

To me, a large part of fishing and hunting is aesthetic. A diminutive fly rod, neatly done, with a tiny grip to match and a plain reel seat is a joy to look at and carry, as is a short, slender, light-weight shotgun or rifle.  As long as I am not chancing a crippling shot, I’ll take the lightweight every time. The portability and beauty of the equipment are a great part of the game. Bear in mind that when I speak of fly fishing, I’m talking about the average everyday trouting, with a little bluegill and bass fishing thrown in; steelhead and salt-water fishing are not included. So, for my fishing, diminutive rods are entirely adequate.

Ed Shenk, Fly Rod Trouting, 1989.

As a younger person in Montana, the biggest fly fishing influences upon me were Eastern writers.  As their books happened to be on the shelves at our cabin, I read short rod advocates like Arnold Gingrich. When I later moved to Central Pennsylvania, and started fishing many of the streams cherished by those writers, I found that I enjoyed short rods myself. Eventually, I came upon “a diminutive fly rod, neatly done, with a tiny grip to match and a plain reel seat” built by Ed Shenk himself. I have really enjoyed fishing this 5′ 2″ fiberglass rod, but I fear it caught its last brook trout (or any other trout) this past weekend. It’s not suited to the waters I’ll be fishing after my return West, and, as a once piece-rod, it is not travel friendly.  So, I guess it goes to the rear of the closet or to the sale page.  Either way, it’s been nice fishing with you (your rod, that is), Ed.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2013 at 2:13 PM and is filed under Fly Fishing Literature, Fly Fishing Tackle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.