(2) Trico Tricks: Using Peripheral Vision: Seeing the Big Picture

In my last post I briefly touched on the need for the fly fisher to rest the rising fish in a run for a few minutes by simply casting to other fish in the immediate area. This seems to be effective because it allows the fish to get back into their rhythm of feeding on the natural tricos. And so when you cast to the other fish and or come back to the original fish you can sometimes trick them into taking your artificial Trico by catching them "off guard". So, the short rest period allows the fish to eat natural after natural. I picture the fish almost thinking, "Yum, yum, yum;..... Yum, yum, yum", with each rise. By allowing  the fish to feed, you are sort of lulling it to sleep. The fish will slip out of that  hypersensitive state of awareness of possible danger from all your casting. 

I think one of the best ways to do this is to try to see the bigger picture while fishing. I  try to use my peripheral vision to pick up other  fish that are rising outside of the main run I might be fishing. Out of the corner of my eye, I might catch a glimpse of a surface disturbance upstream or downstream or across or somewhat behind me. I may even hear a gulp. I try to pay attention to these cues and cast to these other fish for a few minutes before going back to the main run.. 

Beginner fly fishers sometimes have a difficult time paying attention to the big picture as they can get so focused on a limited piece of water. I guess we could say it is quite easy to be “short sighted”.  It can be difficult to see the “other” fish in the area because one can be so focused on a few fish in one drift line. Try to remember even a seemingly “small” section of river is quite large and can hold many fish in all kinds of unlikely places.

Use all of your vision. Look around. Even while you have one eye on the drift of your trico try to have another eye looking around for other rising fish.  The river you are fishing, the world, and certainly life is all quite large. There are more fish than the immediate run you are fishing.

 I think of a line of poetry from William Blake, “If the windows of our perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern”.

Maybe it is similar to trying to “see” God looking through the narrow chinks of our caverns. It is far too limited and short-sighted.