Sunup to sundown.
There’s nothing as simple and yet so full of variation as a full day on the water. The diversity of situations challenges the will of a fisherman: Exhaustion from the forces of water — its speed, its numbing cold, the pressure of its depth. Weariness from the weather — the endless wind, the heavy rain, and the consuming heat of the sun. We soak in all the stages and moments that one single day brings, and we are alive through each one.
Everything changes in a full day. Fish pass through windows of activity. The light shifts from blue morning into crisp, midday hues and finally passes into the soft orange-black shadows of evening. The wind, the weather, the temperature — our energy level, the strength in tired legs and the mental ability to focus — it all changes in one long day.
In springtime, these days grow longer. The land is greener; the sun climbs higher and provides more chances to master the elements and to find fish in parts of the river that have lain dormant since the winter solstice. The hatches are coming: mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, midges. All sense the light and the temperature shift. The longer daylight activates the food chain, and we will follow.
We carry no timepiece. We care not the specific hour, because it’s an unnecessary bother. We pull on waders in the predawn half-light, warming gloved hands with puffs of heated breath dancing in the air. There’s nothing but the river and the fish, no other care or concern until the evening darkness asks us to surrender, upon which hour we’ll find the dim path back to where we started, back into the modern life and into a world that so many souls mistakenly consider the real one.
Full days allow time for reflection, for a good bank-sit, time for getting to know our own thoughts or the thoughts of a friend who shares the same madness — time enough for a streamside fire.
We prepare, we plot. We replace miniature soldiers for the dismantled platoons inside fly boxes. We perpetually patch waders because we know there’s a price for inattention, for laziness, for being unprepared miles from the access point. We walk, bringing heavy packs stuffed with essentials, expecting and meeting the forceful shifts of time — one into another.
We fish the full days. Dawn to dark. Not almost dawn — real dawn. Not almost dark — real dark. Dogmatic and persistent. The first ones here and the last ones to leave — because there’s too much to miss otherwise.
Because every abiding memory starts here.
Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Wonderfully written and photographed Domenick!
Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.
I found your blog for the first time today and it was perhaps the most enjoyed read I’ve found on a fishing site in a long time. Like many, I too have a deep relation with our living waters. Its is a rare talent to create such mental imagery and to express your emotions in words about a lifestyle that many of us feel but can’t describe. -Thank You
Thank you, Mike. Makes my day.
After staring at moving water for a “full day” when I look up at the trees they ripple like the currents. A sure sign of fishing hard. Am I alone on this? I am getting pretty old.
Ha. I like that. Doesn’t happen to me . . . yet.
At my age Rick, its me that ripples like the currents and sways like the trees and I creak when I bend like an auld tree.
Superb – I love photos of streamside discoveries, one of my local rivers has an old abandoned mill on one stretch, and someway downstream of it, is an old car, I stop on ponder how it got there every time I pass it.
One lakeside fishing spot has an old fish trap from the days when salmon used to run the river before it was dammed for hydro electric scheme circa 1930, further up on a track above the dam, there is an old German machine post that covered the dam in case of resistance/maquis saboteurs. Or maybe it was to protect the dam from angry salmon fishermen LOL. The great thing about being tired after a days fishing, is that you are happy tired, and that first beer is the sweetest you’ll ever taste.Excellent piece, brings to mind Steinbeck and Hemingway in some ways.
Thanks you.
“back into the modern life and into a world that so many souls mistakenly consider the real one.”
– Damn, I envy you on being able to bring those thoughts to paper in this manner – it’s fantastic!
Well done, great to read.
Cheers from Switzerland,
Tom
Thank you, Tom.
Beautifully written, Dom.
A day on the river is a fractal for a lifetime. I wish that my entire life were as thick with experience as most days I spend fishing.
A perhaps trivial thought: of all your great photographs, the ones that stick with me most are those of the dilapidated spinning and spin casting reels. Perhaps they remind me of the little boy who thought that a new spin casting reel was the greatest thing on earth.
Alex
Right on. I love those pics too.
Dom, Well done! I even read it out loud to my non-fishing wife. (appreciated the photos on the “j”).
Another truly great article Dom! What differentiates it from a great article and a “truly great” article is the beautiful photography you provide!
Dom,
So glad I accidentally ran across Troutbitten!! Your articles are great along
with your beautiful photography. I have passed your website along to my
fly fishing friends so they can enjoy also. Keep up the fine work that you
are doing. ————< Tight Lines George Safranek