Five generations ago, my great-grandfather, Wilford Clark Emery, moved from Culpeper County, Virginia to West Virginia where he fought in the Civil War. My branch of the Emery’s have been there pretty much ever since. Leaving West Virginia nine months ago was like a divorce, like a biblical violation requiring atonement. Even though you hold …
Slow and low…
I haven’t written in months…both because I have not fished and because I haven’t felt I have had words worth reading. Not that life has not been full. There has been some hunting, but nothing memorable. There have been no flies in the vice, no wet waders, no stories to tell. There has just been …
The colors of Autumn
Last October I sat many hours in a tree stand wishing a deer would walk by…so I made a promise that from now on I would fish in October instead. I must say: wild trout on a two-weight while being surrounded by the colors of Autumn is pretty tough to surpass.
After September
In the silence of 11,000 feet,thunder rumbles a mountain away.The wind talks softly through the spruce.The aspens, now green with yellow highlights, flutter gently.Cold downdrafts pull down the mountain.The smell of rain mixes with scents of autumn.Far down below, clear waters roll over rocks and cascade their way to the valley floor.In the midst of …
Bookends..
Transitions are predictable if you listen. You can sense them. You can feel them. You can pray for them to come, or for them to delay; but they come at their own pace and in their own way. Look around… life is subtle but it is also predictable for those who pay attention. And so …
Just knowing we were there..
Trout Lilly (Erythronium americanum) Two weeks ago, as John and I took the long walk back up the mountain out of the run, lamenting the three miles to one fish ratio of the day, John said something that struck me as profound: “I just like knowing they are here.” For John, that day he had …
Chasing April
What a 35 degree Colorado stream looks like… I am an inept fly fisherman. Let’s get that out of the way as a preface to anything I may ever say or elude to in the future. I make no elusions as to my ability, but rather only to my efforts. As much sarcasm and blame …
Right dress, wrong dance
As I walked along a West Virginia stream, this one known as a “Run” - I suppose meaning something smaller than a creek - I had a humorous thought occur to me….I was like a high school kid who showed up at Prom dressed for the Halloween Dance - or maybe the other way around. …
Blind Spots
Blind spots both surround us and help define us - wether we realize this or not - it is a simple truth. This thought occurred to me today as I walked along a local stream with Laurel, my retriever. I kept looking around for her as I worked my way upstream, and every time I …
Something Profound in a Trout Stream
…as winter gives way to spring, so the seasons of life transition from one to another. “Can you remember the first time you cried?” She asked me. We were talking about many things as we drove across the front range, which lay hidden behind a blanket of clouds and snow. “Not really” I said. My …
February Top 10
February…I am officially convinced it is the worst month of the year. At best…It is a tease, with its scattering of sunshine and warm days. But mostly it is just a torment of perpetual gloom punctuated by nasty storms. We get lost in the long dark of winter, only to be lured yonder by one …
New Paths…
“The heart of man determines his path, but the Lord establishes his steps.” - Proverbs 16:9 Now that 2021 has closed, and we look forward to all that 2022 will bring, may we consider our choice of paths, who we journey with, and where we journey to. May it be a year filled with wander …
The Traditional Thread that Binds
The Traditional Way… It’s been a long off-season, but it has not been a season off. I stopped trout fishing back when the temps were in the 90’s and the rain had ceased falling, so I guess that was around the Dog Days of Summer. Fishing conditions were restored by early October, but I was …
Buoy Ten
There is an imaginary demarkation where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, marked by a floating red buoy known by locals as Buoy Ten. On a hot day in late August, to the west side of this you will find calm, peaceful water. To the east…. chaos. The ocean-side of Buoy #10 is a …
Between the Moments….
We live between the moments. They surround us. Each day we are presented with the simple, yet emphatic question: what will I do today? The day passes slowly; The years pass quickly. One day we awake… and we are older. What did we do with the moments that we had? ….yet you do not know …
Fatherhood and Brook Trout
… the visions that we leave The fog clung tight to the water, as the run poured over moss-covered rock. The hemlock and birch along the banks crowded over us, making it hard for the sunlight to stream through. To look up or downstream you found yourself leaning forward, head up, eyes squinting, straining… trying …
The Seamless Drift
“I’ve seen good drifts; I’ve seen not so good drifts; and I’ve seen great drifts.” - my good friend John S. on the art of presentation. Seamless - smooth and continuous, with no apparent gaps or spaces between one part and the next. Ask a great fly fisherman what makes the difference between catching some …
Red-Letter Days…
Moments of perfection The practice of designating days, words, or letters of great significance as red-letter days goes back to early 500’s AD. I never really looked into this before, thought about it, or even noticed it - even though it was always there... my red-letter Bible with the words of Jesus in red, a …
Ends of the Earth
“...Oh, theres a river that winds on forever; I’m gonna see where it leads...” the opening lyrics to Lord Huron’s Ends of the Earth. This river is the Crooked River, Oregon. I have a problem. Admittedly, it is a problem. I say this as I rest my feet after walking nearly five miles out of …
Ageless, Lonely, and Beautiful
In Appalachia, sometimes lines on a map are nothing more than that, and the personality of the region spills-over.
Appalachian Mountain Brookies 