Fishing anecdotes

[John Sheehan]

 Here's a humorous anecdote from John Gierach in his book ' No shortage of Good Days': " I remember hanging out in a slightly tweedy fly shop one afternoon where the owner was promoting the first generation of powdered desiccant used as a fly floatant .A young hippie friend of mine walked in-complete with long hair and Tie dyed T shirt-and the owner asked, "Have you been using the magic powder?" The guy said," Yeah man , but not when I'm fishing ! "

  Here's another from the same book in the chapter entitled, "Cheating" :   "  a well known local poacher once told me that he'd hiked the long way around to a private lake carrying a belly boat , but when he got there , he discovered he'd forgotten his flippers. So using a pair of pliers and the roll of duct tape he always carries, he fashioned a pair of flippers using two aluminum NO TRESPASSING signs he pried off nearby trees . When I made a skeptical face , he showed me the flippers. He still had them behind the seat of his pickup"

[jim cosgrove]

john gierach is an awesome writer.his laid back humor is classic.i remember a stoey about fly tying and he wrote something to the effect of how the fish really seemed to appreciate a certain little extra he added to a fly.it was way funnier when he said it i just got tying heritage featherwing streamers.a beautiful book about maine streamers.i love the traditional stuff.

[John Sheehan]

Jim have you talke with Mark Sleeper about fishing in Maine ? I 've fished Maine for smallies about three times in the past but not fly fishing . It was spinning rods  all the way.

[Mark Sleeper]

Hi Jim I fish the Androscoggin river for smallies, I use a 8 and 9 wt LLBean Orion fly rod, with a Force ULA reel on both rods I have caught 100s' of fish a blast when they jump 3 ft out of the wtr. you can see the rods on my pics.

[John Sheehan]

Glad to see ya here Sleepy!

[jim cosgrove]

thanks mark.i follow your pics.i like traditional flies especially the early american flies.dont have any maine streamers but do have some north east flies as well as early gapen flies and dan baily weber etc.i am going to try some of the traditional style flies for panfish and bass.they caught fish for centuries they will still catch em

[Mark Sleeper]

Jim check out the jawbreaker fly and Hans Hans rabbit strip fly both are on u tube both are deadly my go to flies they catch anything in the wtr

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

My fave is a quote
"There's a fine line between a fisherman and an idiot standing on the shore waving a stick"

[John Sheehan]

lol That's a title to one of Gierach's books I haven't read .

[jim cosgrove]

i am sure i fit in both categories david

[John Sheehan]

I hear ya Jim. I am on a 2nd book of Gierachs and enjoy his writing more and more . Gierach says in 'Fly Fishing Small Streams' the ROYAL WULFF fly is "the state bird of Montana" lol Which books have you read by him  ?

[jim cosgrove]

never read one of his books but he used to write the back page article of fly fisherman.there was also always a nice watercolor scene relating to the article.he has also written longer articles in all sorts of fly magazines.he is one of those guys i feel like i could hang out with.has that kind of mark twain take on things,

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I have one of Gierachs books, "Sex, Death, and Fly Fishing."
When I bought it, my spotted the first word and that's when I had to show her the rest of the title.