Pictures That Remain In Our Mind After a Day On the South Platte River 11 Mile Canyon

Scott and Scotty, a Father and son team decided to leave their cell phone/cameras in my vehicle for fear they might get wet. And I forgot my camera. I left it on the seat of my vehicle. I usually bring it along in case my client does not have their own camera and they catch a big fish. Such pictures find their place in the family photo album. Memories locked in time in a book.

Scott and Scotty were new to fly fishing. Before today, they had never seen a trout take a caddis fly off the surface and explode out of the river trying to throw the hook. Nor had they ever seen dozens of trout lined up in a run taking nymphs below the surface. Before today, they had never held such wonderful trout in their hands. These would be images that would be fixed in their memories.

There was one fish that Scott caught that was truly beautiful and larger than the others. It was a Cutthroat trout with beautiful colors and markings and not a scar on her. When I netted the fish I asked Scott if he wanted me to run up to my vehicle to get my camera which was just a short distance away..  He said, “No, that would not be necessary”.  I could tell as he held the fish in the river in admiration he was taking a picture of the fish in his mind that  would be far better than even the best digital camera could ever  form. This was a picture that was not about the fisherman and his ego but a picture of the beauty of a fish. No measurements were made and I will offer no estimations of its size. It does not matter.

In, “A River Runs Through It”, Norman Maclean describes how after Paul made his big climatic catch that pictures were taken of his big fish.  But he describes how the picture did not do justice, “The photographs turned out to be like most amateur snapshots of fishing catches-the fish didn’t look as big as they actually were and the fishermen looked self conscious”. But Maclean goes on to describe one picture that seems to at least partly be formed by the heart, “However, one close up picture at the end of this day remains in my mind, as if fixed by some chemical bath”. Norman goes on saying, “I remember him both as a distant abstraction in artistry and as a close-up in water and laughter.”

I guess that is how I felt at the end of this day helping Scot and Scotty learn to fly fish. The three of us have many pictures that “remain in our mind as if fixed in a chemical bath”. And that one big fish Scot caught and the laughter in his voice and smile on his face will certainly remain with me.

I prefer the images formed by the spirit fixed by some chemical bath; a close-up in water and laughter. “Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart”, states an ancient Irish hymn.  I want to have a vision of that Cutthroat as Scott did. I want to see it as God sees it.

 “Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart”.