Sacred Fishing Holes: What Have We Done With the Garden That Was Entrusted To Us?

Antonio Machado, in his poem titled, “The Wind One Brilliant Day” ends the poem with this question, “Then, I said to myself, What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you”?

I ask myself this question in regard to my own favorite fishing holes. “What have I done with the sacred pools that were entrusted to me”?

In the Iron John tale a young boy is asked to preserve the integrity of a sacred spring. As he guards it he gazes into the clear deep water. He sees gold salamanders and gold fish (perhaps they are Golden Trout?).  He contemplates.

As a boy I stared into the waters of a small pond where I first learned to fly fish. As a boy I sadly realized that I could personally ‘fish out’ the pond.

As an adult and guide, I continue to contemplate as I ask myself again, “What have I done with the garden and the sacred pools of water teeming with trout that were entrusted to me”?  What have I done with the Dream Stream, Eleven Mile Canyon, Deckers, the Arkansas River, Antero, Spinney, the Taylor? What kind of a guardian have I been?

Have I merely used these sacred pools to make repeated, bragging claims of the many trout I have caught from these places?  Did I brag  of 40 fish days?  Or, of twenty plus inch fish caught? Did I brag about the “serious damage” done, or, did I speak of “slaying fish” or  “ripping lips” as though my hands were wiped clean of causing any damage to the sacred pools entrusted to me simply because I am a catch and release fly fisherman? 

What have I done with the garden that was entrusted to me?

May I rip as few lips as possible. May I cause as little damage as possible. May I never have another 40 fish day.  May I never slay another fish.