What is fly fishing?

There was a time in my life when I taught Scuba Diving. One of the most dangerous scenarios a diver could find themselves in was blowing the dive table. When a diver stays down to long nitrogen builds up in the blood eventually becoming lethal. I always thought this was a great analogy of how most of us live our lives.

The only way to safely surface after staying down too long is to make a decompression stop which allows the body to off gas. Again, most of us are in desperate need of a decompression stop for our souls and I believe this is what fly fishing is all about. The experience of a day on the flats can only be captured in spiritual language. Something happens in the experience of wading a flat or the quiet polling of a skiff that allows our soul to breathe. It is this soul decompression that calls us to these sacred spaces where our senses are rejuvenated as we wait for the gray spirits to make their appearance. I have spent most of my life trying to save the world, these days I realize that it is my own heart that needs saving, my secret soul that needs life. It is funny how this revelation slowly came to light walking on the flats, decompressing my soul. The all out sprint that many of us call life, leaves our minds, bodies and souls desperate for a place of stillness and quiet, a place to stop and let our soul breath.

This is what fly fishing is; oh and then there are those moments when you see that glistening tail that you have to remind yourself to take a breath.

29.01.2008. 14:44