"Trout Truths" by D.W.C. Farrington

Illustration by J.E. Grace

From The Brook Trout and the Determined Angler, by Charles Barker Bradford, 1900.

Floodplains, November 2015

Floodplains is a new literary blog featuring original art and writing with a fly fishing theme.

Jim Lampros, one of the founders, writes:

"Therein lies the inspiration for Floodplains – a window into the wonder that awaits wherever water moves. By capturing moments and memories born of the river, we hope to remind our readers of the significance of these places and inspire others to find their own floodplains to explore. As the river constantly reinvents and redefines itself day by day, season by season, it’s an open invitation for us to rethink what we thought we knew. We hope to do the same with Floodplains, providing story angles and illustrations outside the new norm. Step into the woods and take the long way to the river. You’ll be surprised at what you find."

Pretty nice. Check it out HERE.

The Artist and the Fly Fisher

Very nice. Makes me want to be an artist.

"On Colour" by James Ogden

"Trout Fishing" by Alexander Frederick Rolfe, date unknown

Poem, presumably by the author, from Ogden on Fly Tying by James Ogden, London, 1887

"Summer's Elegy" by Howard Nemerov

                                                            "End of Summer" by Brett James Smith

Day after day, day after still day,

The summer has begun to pass away.
Starlings at twilight fly clustered and call,
And branches bend, and leaves begin to fall.
The meadow and the orchard grass are mown,
And the meadowlark's house is cut down.

The little lantern bugs have doused their fires,
The swallows sit in rows along the wires.
Berry and grape appear among the flowers
Tangled against the wall in secret bowers,
And cricket now begins to hum the hours
Remaining to the passion's slow procession
Down from the high place and the golden session
Wherein the sun was sacrificed for us.
A failing light, no longer numinous,
Now frames the long and solemn afternoons
Where butterflies regret their closed cocoons.
We reach the place unripe, and made to know
As with a sudden knowledge that we go
Away forever, all hope of return
Cut off, hearing the crackle of the burn-
ing blade behind us, and the terminal sound
Of apples dropping on the dry ground.

"Summer's Elegy" by Howard Nemerov, from The Collected Poems. © The University of Chicago Press, 1981. 

Just Thinking

A Photo Miscellany

In my browsings on the internet I tend to collect photos that I think I might eventually use on this blog. More often than not they languish in my files. So I'm pulling some out for your education and enjoyment.

 This one greatly appealed to me back in the dark days of winter.

Something about lost seasons, lost hopes, lost loves....

 I found some beautifully delicate line drawings by an artist in Japan who fishes in Hokkaido.

I greatly regret having no more information than that, but the drawing speaks for itself.

It's good to know exactly what it is we are trying not to squeeze too hard

as we extract the fly and release the trout.

What is it about mermaids? This one makes me happy.

This photo is for purely instructional purposes. I'm sure the first thing you noticed

 was that she isn't holding the rod correctly. For one thing, the reel is set up for a left-handed caster.
And as long as she's holding the rod in her right hand, why isn't she holding any line in her left hand?
Makes me think maybe she really doesn't know how to fly fish.

(Where is her left hand, anyway?)

Dreaming in Color

I recently found this painting by Rod Crossman. Lovely, and evocative, too. Let there be Browns...