Round Two

The second edition of Writers on the Fly is tomorrow evening at Emerald Water Anglers in West Seattle.

What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?

This profile of the splendid splinter by Richard Ben Cramer was originally published in the June 1986 issue of Esquire.

Few men try for best ever, and Ted Williams is one of those. There's a story about him I think of now. This is not about baseball but fishing. He meant to be the best there, too. One day he says to a Boston writer: "Ain't no one in heaven or earth ever knew more about fishing."

"Sure there is," says the scribe.

"Oh, yeah? Who?"

"Well, God made the fish."

"Yeah, awright," Ted says. "But you have to go pretty far back."

LINK

STEELHEAD RUN

Written by Larry Wells

(First published in Southwest Airlines “Spirit” Magazine, June 1996)

“It ought to be a guarantee that I am honest and sincere about this noble river, practically unknown to the world, when I confess that I have given up the Rogue, and the fishing lodges I own at Winkle Bar on the most beautiful and isolated stretch, to camp and fish and dream and rest beside the green-rushing, singing Umpqua.” ZANE GREY

Our guide Tim Caine arrives at 6 sharp, country rock playing on his jeep radio. “There’s coffee and muffins on the back seat if you want ‘em.” He’s in his late twenties, lean, tanned, a fish charmer who enjoys his work. By six-thirty the mist over the river has disappeared and the Douglas firs on the tops of the ridges are framed in golden light. Standing on the steep boulder-strewn banks with my fishing compadre, P.D. Fyke, I make out a ghostly shape in the clear water. “That’s steelhead,” says Tim. It takes an experienced eye to spot the fish under the foamy, rippling surface. The steelhead rolls on its side, and a bullet-shape flashes silver in the green water.

LINK (via:Hotty Toddy)

Writers On The Fly

If you're going to be in the greater Seattle vicinity this Thursday evening you don't want to miss the innagural edition of Writers on the Fly hosted by Jason Rolfe and Emerald Water Anglers. This evening of fly fishing readings will be anchored by The Flyfish Journal's Steve Duda, writer/photographer John Tobey and other special guests. There will also be a raffle to benefit the Wild Steelhead Coalition, some great art, door prizes and beer.

It all equals a great Thursday night out.

Institutions don’t have any room for wild men....we see that in fisheries today.

Charles Witek asks, where have all the wild men gone?

LINK

Bait and Switch

Nick Schulz wrote this little ditty on the lameness of sport fishing back in 2006. 

In The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway writes of a heroic battle between man and a giant marlin. For 50 years, the novel's grandiose vision of aquatic struggle has stood as the last word on sport fishing. It's about time somebody else got a few words in. Here goes: Sport fishing is deeply, irredeemably lame.

LINK (via: Slate)