Graven Images

 

Perhaps it is s sign of my advancing age, or a desire to reconnect with the simplicity of my childhood, but I have noticed an increasing discontent with all the fly fishing accoutrements I have collected over the years. Boxes of flies, packs, vests, tools, cameras and "just in case" items to stave off a fishless outing. Sometimes even a quick evening trip to my local creek feels like an excursion.Somewhere along the way, success seems to have eclipsed fun. 

I have flirted with the thought of fly fishing minimalism, but at the last minute I give in to the fear of being caught without the perfect fly. Consequently I carry more fly boxes than any three people need. Even my dabbling with Tenkara, I haven't yet been able to bring myself to winnow my ammunition to a single flybox. 

  Social media has played a part in this epiphany. The explosion of fly fishing images on social media  once exciting and new, has become the equivalent of a third serving of cobbler - too much of a good thing. These days I tend to take few pictures of fish unless they are truly special. I find I prefer to take pictures of  things that catch my eye, for my own enjoyment. There are others whose talents with a camera dwarf mine, and adding my simple images to the interwebs seems like additional noise nobody needs.  I found I was becoming too consumed with trying to produce a perfect image for the approval of others, which never was the point of going fishing. 

I am planning a trip to a local river soon, and I plan to take only a single fly pattern, Maybe a couple spares in case I lose one. I will take my cane rod and dad's old reel. I hope to have fewer  distractions, and a return to the joy I once felt just being a kid with a couple cork poppers bought at a small farm town hardware store.