Dear Reader: We continue with the fourth of six installments in this story about friendship, faith and flyfishing:
Cathedral
The place is little changed after more than four decades – despite the havoc of storms, floods and rafters. My sons fished this stream with me; perhaps my grandchildren will, too. With few exceptions, I have had little luck catching fish on this river over the years, and yet returned once or twice a year, even when there was precious little time for fishing. If the mark of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the same result, but expecting a different one, then I am mad or a hopeless optimist. There were always possibilities, even unlikely ones, even if high water forecasts fishing failure. If this stretch were empty, perhaps fish were active around the bend. The search for a different outcome begins somehow, somewhere, sometime for most of us, and it began here for me.
An article in a flyfishing magazine introduced the idea of a stream-as-cathedral to us. It is on one’s knees that reverence is shown in a cathedral. One ought to also approach a small stream on the knees to prevent alerting wary trout with footsteps and shadow. Lehigh Gorge is the sanctuary of this natural cathedral, Lehigh Tannery the narthex.
Continue reading: https://erwatsonblog.com/when-fish-rise/
Practicing, Not Perfect 