Angling Companions
Usually I fish alone. I love solitude…and nothing is more enjoyable than being alone with a river--unless it is fishing with an enjoyable angling companion. In this segment of “The Angler’s Roundtable,” I’d like to mention a couple of the delightful individuals I’ve been privileged to fish with over the years.
Readers of the Roundtable will already have met my two principal angling mentors, Walt Canfield and Irv Eckholt. In addition to those wonderful gentlemen, I’ve fished with many other anglers who have provided me with great memories through the years.
I remember one day I fished with Jesse Gapen, father of Don Gapen ,the inventor of the muddler minnow. Jesse found out I was learning to trout fish, and asked if I’d like to go with him to some secluded beaver ponds along the Gunflint Trail north of Grand Marais, Minnesota.
The day was cloudless and warm. We hiked back off a narrow two track, and eventually emerged at the edge of a small crystal-clear beaver pond. Trout were rising readily.
Jesse showed me where to stand, and how to cast to avoid the alders that ringed the pond. I was using a size #14 black gnat which Jesse said “ought to do the trick.” After a couple of feeble attempts at a cast (I was too preoccupied with the alders to remember the fundamentals of casting), I managed a cast that landed delicately on the surface of the pond. A trout grabbed it so suddenly it startled me, and I set the hook by shear reflex. I brought the fish in and Jesse landed it, after first rinsing his hands so as “not to remove the protective slime of the fish.” The brookie--a scant nine inches in length--was a creature of indescribable beauty. Jesse and I admired the fish then he simply let it go. I was so enchanted by the whole experience, that I never asked if we should keep it. He said simply: “too beautiful to kill.” In retrospect, I suspect that my career as a “catch and release” angler probably started right then.
Years later I was privileged to fish in Alaska with a gentleman who was probably the finest trout fisherman I’ve ever known. Mike Hershberger owned a fly shop in Anchorage, and had fished all over the 49th State. He once caught a 36” stream rainbow (not a steelhead) on a fly.
When he and I fished together on the Alagnak, I spent more time just watching him than fishing myself. It was such a joy to see how effortlessly and perfectly he handled a fly rod. Every cast was precisely where he wanted it, and there was no distance he seemed incapable of reaching. It was a fly fishing clinic the likes of which I’ve never again encountered. I don’t remember what we caught, for it didn’t matter--what I won’t forget is the poetry of an accomplished angler in perfect harmony with his equipment. It certainly did not surprise me that he was soon thereafter selected “Alaska’s Angler of the Year!” What did shock me was his sudden death. I still hurt to think that Mike is not around to grace the streams of “the Great Land” with his prowess. Yet I carry his memory safely with me…and share it with all those who will listen.
Those are just two of the individuals who have helped fill my memory’s creel to the brim. What a lucky angler I have been to have had angling companions like that!
Please take time to tell me about the angling companions who have enriched your life. Respond to Angling Companions with with any feedback to Dan Holland at E-mail: dholland@coredcs.com.