that's how it happened

• 2009-05-12

  Trailer for Rivers of a Lost Coast, a new documentary, at least in part about Bill Schaadt, the greatest fly fisherman who ever lived. From a 1974 Sports Illustrated profile: “The intensity with which he fishes is inspiring. He began to eat his lunch one-handed. He would cast, then in the several seconds it took for the line to sink, he would take a quick bite of a sandwich, set it down and retrieve the fly, cast again, take another bite. He fishes from dawn to dark with no stops in between for food or conversation. One time he was fishing a run so wide he had to wade within two inches of the top of his chest-high waders and then make 100-foot casts. Realizing this effort was far too strenuous to maintain for long, he went up to the car and brought down his sign painter’s step ladder, which he then carried out to where he had been wading. He climbed up on it and fished in comfort. And when Schaadt arises tomorrow or the next day, or next year, it will be with the same enthusiasm for fishing that he had 20 years ago. When he hooks a fish he often screams and yells. Fishermen nearby who don’t know him figure, “Boy, that must be the first one that guy ever caught.” (via troutunderground).

• 2007-07-09

  Eat your heart out J.R. Hartley

  
  While hipsters are still enjoying their fixed gear bicycles, I’ve already moved on to the next big thing: fly fishing. Between my father, the GF, and myself we landed 14 brown trout on the Avon this Sunday, including this kraken-esque monster. I can already sense that fly fishing has all the elements of an incipient obsession: lots of expensive kit, the enormous satisfaction of mastering an age-old skill, and the competition of trying to beat your own previous record. Add in the nerdy compulsion of collecting and tying your own flies and I’m completlely sold. (Non-UK readers might like to note that the title of this post is a reference to a much loved British ad from almost 25 years ago.)