While guiding I have often said to fly fishers, “It sure helps if you can see the fish,” and I will often add, “But if you can’t see the fish imagine where the fish should be and cast to that fish”. Sight fishing, to a specific fish, real or imagined, is an art in which constant micro adjustments have to be made to get the fly to the fish.
Over the years, I have learned that not everyone can see the fish and nor can everyone read the water and imagine where they might be. It can also be difficult for the fly fisher to picture where the fly is during the drift and where it is in relationship to the fish. It is critical to have the fly in the exact feeding lane of the fish and (if wet fly fishing) at the correct depth. I try to tell people, if you can’t see the fly, try to imagine where the fly is drifting (picture it in your mind through out the drift), and at the same time try to imagine where the fly is in relation to the fish. But in trying to teach this skill I have noticed that if the fly fisher cannot perceive these things then most often his casts will be “off” target. And as a guide, I have to then say many times, “a little more to the left… to the right” etc. An accurate perception of these dynamics comes with years of experience and some imagination.
I think a vivid imagination helps in these situations. There are times when I cannot see the actual fish, nor my fly but I can still perceive about where they are (or hopefully should be). It is almost like a 6th sense. Sometimes after making the proper cast and then while the fly is drifting, I can just sense the exact moment when the fish, even if I cannot see it, is going to take the fly. I follow the fly through out the drift and then I get that sense, an indescribable perception that the fish is going to take the fly in the next moment. This of course does not happen all the time. But when it does it is a bit mysterious, a wonderful almost magical experience and one of the joys of fly fishing.
Maybe such imaginings are really at least in part, about having faith and hope, mixed in with some wishful thinking. Perhaps there is something to be said for acting as though something is already there…as though something already happened or is about to happen even when we can’t see it. Perhaps such imaginings, such vision and faith are all mysteriously related to when Jesus said , ”the kingdom of God is with in you”, and if the kingdom of God is really here or about to be here, then we should act accordingly.
When I was a kid I played baseball in a “kingdom” of sorts mainly in my imagination. I would go to a baseball field with a bat and ball and would play entire baseball games all by myself. I would throw the ball up and hit it and depending on the quality of the hit I determined if it were a single, double, triple, a home run or an out. I batted for both teams, I retrieved every hit ball and played inning after inning. I played for hours. I kept score. There was a lot of imagination to such games as I had to keep track of invisible base runners in my mind to score the games properly. I had to picture those runners in my minds eye.
Perhaps keeping track of imaginary base runners in one’s mind is similar to keeping track of where the fish are lying in the river. In your mind, in both baseball and fly fishing, you have to juggle several dynamics all at once. And just as one can picture when that short fly ball to left field is going to drop in and that base runner on 2nd is going to try to bolt home, the fly fisher can also picture when that huge rainbow, at a precise moment, is going to take the fly. Perhaps this is all related to having faith and hope and playing within the kingdom of God.
In all these things it sure is a lot more fun of you can see those invisible base runners; if you can see that guy getting ready to sprint toward home. It also is more fun if you can imagine where that 20 inch rainbow is lying among the rocks and when it is about to take your fly.
Maybe even just the perceiving itself is an act of faith.
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