Into the Landscape

In his book Crazy for Rivers, Bill Barich writes “I liked the wild, beautiful country where trout are often found, the solitude of walking along a river and being drawn more completely into the landscape, and how the sound of a fast-flowing stream could wash away my blues.”  

 

We probably go fly fishing for a whole lot of reasons,  each of us maybe driven by different pursuits:  to land a hog in one of our larger rivers, to fish a high mountain lake, to catch some of the more leary brook trout in our small mountain streams.  But I think we are all driven by something other than catching a fish.  Standing on the bank of a river or wading into it, we do have our blues washed away.  We get drawn into the landscape, our small, finite, mortal life that for an afternoon or a day becomes part of a larger landscape.  Our troubles seem small, too, if we even think of them at that moment.

 

Fly fishing forces us — allows us, demands of us — to be in the present moment.  The rhythm of the cast.  The drift of the fly.  The wash of the river’s water against our legs.  We are not just in the landscape but we are of it.

 

And my mind goes to Project Healing Waters.  Angler’s Covey and Royal Gorge Anglers are proud to host, for the 6th Year, the Fly Fishing Film Tour 2014.  All of the proceeds to go to support Project Healing Waters which offers our returning soldiers a chance to experience fly fishing and fly tying.  This past year, 121 soldiers from the Fort Carson and Colorado Springs area benefited from this great program. They went to 15 different private fishing properties in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming (some attended more than once), and spent cumulatively 298 soldier days on the water fishing — helping to restore them both physically and emotionally. Another 30 soldiers benefited from the fly tying classes–- many of them going on to fish during the year.

 

We hope you can join us Friday night, February 7, at the Stargazer Theatre in Colorado Springs.  Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and films start at 6:30.  We’ll have drawings and raffles throughout the evening.  Tickets are $12.00 at the shops or $15.00 at the door.