The Angler's Dream

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WF70
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Joined: 06/01/12 15:49

The Angler's Dream

#1

Post by WF70 »

Watched videos tonight of folks searching for better and better waters to fish.
30 years ago I put this in a newsletter I wrote for our club. The theme is old and beat to death so some of the phrasing had a familiar ring to it as if it came through the mists of memory, or from someone else. I was never able to find a source. Perhaps it had been in my head already for years.

The Angler's Dream

Once while in casual angling on my favorite mountain brook
I fell to wistful thinking and for a few moments I took
To wondering on the ideal fishing and on the ideal stream
And down I sat there streamside to ponder this anglers dream.

The stream, thought I, must have gentle runs, and pools deep and clear
With easy wading and easy casting, with trees but not too near
Broad of breadth and steady of current, some riffled waters fast
With a caddis rising for every trout and a trout to my every cast

And never a rain nor sultry weather to spoil the day's delight
And never a lack of heavy trout and never the coming night
This thought, I surely must be, all any angler could wish
To cast to endless rising trout and there catch endless fish

But would, thought I, could such a stream really be the ideal
To succeed without really trying to fill an empty creel
And not to question the secrets held there within the flow
Or never to be challenged or never yet want to know

I mused a while this question of just why I could not see
What the perfect water was and what was ideal to me
Just then a trout began to rising 'neath the branch of a hemlock tree
In the peaceful currents of this mountain pool flowing gently in front of me

Tiny mayflies spun on the water, with slender wings held high
While the trout beneath gently sipped its quarry drifting by
The steady current slowly circled to heighten the mayflies plight
And drifted them by one by one to the mountain trout's delight

I watched a while of this watery play to let the drama unfold
Then crept in caution to streamside and into the waters cold
Fly selected, to the trout I cast , one cast, two, then three
And on the third I had him fast, that trout 'neath the streamside tree

The line pulled taught, the hook set home, and filled him with alarm
And he bolted fast for upstream cover to free himself from harm
To the currents he swam in wild retreat to escape the clinging fly
To the sky he leaped in fear to gain the freedom I could deny

Through pool and run I carried the chase, not the largest but surely he
Held all the wild will of his mountain kin that ever had kept him free
One final plunge to the depths he dove in desperate fearful flight
But my line was stout; to hand he came, only to lose his fight

What beauty shown forth in the morning light to meet the appreciative eye
This finest of Nature's watery creatures had been caught on that tiny fly
Topped near in black to amber beneath, flanks tinted with silvery green
And crimson spots of the deepest cast dappled his autumn sheen

Who could look and who not wonder at this master of the tiny brook
Whose only error was the rise he made and of the fly he took
Whose courageous fight, the wild trout's mark, still continues to amaze
His autumn dress, the most pleasing sight, as fell to an angler's gaze

This was the spirit of the mountain water which summons me time and again
To angle the trout of this favorite brook and cast to their wary kin
How could I look and how not feel that this trout had won his way
Had fought his best and earned the right to rise yet another day

Released to the currents to the depths he swam, away to safe retreat
Among the rocks in the gentle current that swirled around my feet
And in that moment I had my answer to the question that puzzled me
Of what the finest angling was and the finest stream might be

I looked anew on this mountain brook, of modest flow and size
That rewards only the searcher and to the searcher the prize
Of small bright trout in varied water to challenge the angler's skill
Of current and rock and trying chase to test the angler's will

In the fairest environs of the angler's craft, in endless solitude
With riddles enough for the solving and waters to match each mood
Where scents and sounds on the river wind season the highland air
And only to see and only be pleased is the only angler's fare

No artist could paint with finer hand for any critic to see
These lovely scenes of upland art that here surrounded me
A quiet place of quiet thought, where the highest reward comes best
To the seeker who seeks only the trout, but finds himself in the quest

Standing there by my favorite brook in the chill of the autumn air
In the boundless beauty of this timeless place I'd found my answer there
Blessings counted, with rod in hand, I stepped to my mountain stream
To cast on these ideal waters, to cast to the Angler's Dream

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theantiquematinee
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Joined: 04/22/20 07:34

Re: The Angler's Dream

#2

Post by theantiquematinee »

Beautifully written, articulated, and truly lovely. Thank you for sharing this!

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GerardH
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Joined: 06/20/19 08:45
Location: Wyoming, MN

Re: The Angler's Dream

#3

Post by GerardH »

Lovely...that touched my soul. Thank you!

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WF70
Guide
Posts: 146
Joined: 06/01/12 15:49

Re: The Angler's Dream

#4

Post by WF70 »

Thank you so much. Your comments make holding it for all these years worthwhile.

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