'Tis the Season

Manitou Springs: Temp -4'

I take a certain satisfaction by engaging in activities that are in tune with the seasons. I love to fly fish to specific hatches that are seasonal. I enjoy the feeling or that sense of  knowing I am in the right place at the right time. I love that sense of,  "It is time".  There is a time to put on a specific fly during a certain hatch. There is a time for the fish to rise and a time to lay low. Now, is the time when both I and fish will lay low.

Often for me, 'Tis now the season, to retreat from the river.  While it is cold and snowy, I prefer to cross country ski. I feel more in harmony with nature when I allow the seasons and the weather to influence what I do. This is important to me as I find myself living in a society that is largely divorced from natural cycles. My choices to "go with" what mother nature offers makes such activities as fly fishing and skiing more meaningful as I may vaguely intuit being a part of something that is so much bigger than I. 

I don't really know when I will fish again. Year to year, December tends to be my down time month for fly fishing. But, as we know, Colorado weather can change so quickly. A warm day in January might bring me out to the river again. For now, I lay low like the fish. For now, I allow the snow and the cold to come down upon me.

I glide silently, low and deep, in the womb of the wood. I ski the mountain and forest, forever looking for a glimpse of the source of all this winter beauty.  I look for a hint of warmer days to come, when a fish might rise, as I too rise from my own interior winter. 

'Tis the season.

Blue Winged Olives Persist On Pueblo's Arkansas River Tail Water

 It is the middle of December, and we are still fishing dry during the fabulous Blue Winged Olive hatch on the Arkansas River in Pueblo. Air temperature 65 degrees. It was warm enough that anglers were shedding layers of clothing. I don't know what to think. It kind of feels a bit crazy and out of place. But my best guess on what to do is to "just go with it". Proceed. Fish it!  Match the hatch!  Practice your dry fly skills. Why not? Numerous action on top. Bigger fish mainly laying low among the deeper holes around the boulders. We are hoping those bigger fish are still around hiding. Time will tell.

My friend Don and I were catching and missing dozens of fish. Then while the hatch was still on and in the midst of the fish still rising we just said, "Enough". We stopped fishing. We decided it was time to go. We both decided that there is something good  about leaving the river with rising fish. And it was good.

Spot Fishing: Divinely Shaped Spots of Time

Norman Maclean, in “A River Runs Through It,” spoke of spots of time.  “Spots of time” is a phrase used by Wordsworth to describe those moments in life that seem to be divinely shaped and designed. Together, Norman and his father often spoke of poetry, the Bible and perhaps about these divine moments.  

Maclean would spend much of his life trying to write about such moments. For better and certainly some times worse, I have spent much of my own life looking for divinely shaped spots. Sometimes I could see them, other times not, and at other times, I simply refused to "see". Regardless, this kind of “spot fishing” can be quite profound. What could be more profound?

As we approach and transition to winter with the shorter and darker days, I was first inclined to say that it seems more difficult to find these spots of time. But, I am not certain. Maybe this is the “season”, or the in between time in which to more carefully look. Perhaps these divinely shaped spots of time are all around us.  Perhaps the darkness, the shorter days and cold can help us focus our attention more intensely on what might be divinely shaped. It could be that in the summer, our vision is too “spread out,” and we miss the best “spot fishing”.

Fishing in the winter often is about waiting for those narrow openings to appear on the river. These moments could be a narrow time slot when the water temperature raises just enough to trigger a hatch of midges or BWO’s.  In that spot of time the fish feed. I guess in a way, we could think of these hatches as divinely shaped spots of time often surrounded by wind, snow and cold.

I am also aware that the month of December is one of the most difficult times of the year for many people. The culture of course will keep telling us we should just be happy and buy as much stuff as we can.  Our culture does not feel divinely shaped to me.

I think I would rather be on a river, or skiing a mountain looking for divinely shaped spots of time. I don't think they are to be found in the malls or on the tube.