The Wholistic Fly Fisher©

Series Sputters Along

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While the environment and fishing pressure has severely dented the ability to produce quality fly fishing outings these days, rolling along like a two-wheeled trike is my sidebar, “The Wholistic Fly Fisher.”

It is one of those side video and learning projects, reverse that, I hoped would generate some interest for MY particular demographic — the aging fly fisher.

But, you know there’s a problem that comes with that. First and foremost, a man has to admit to aging. And there, my friends, is the rub. And I don’t mean barbecue rub.

Aging comes at us in many ways, and most of them, well, they aren’t pretty. And this story all ends the same way, as Jim Morrison said, “No one here gets out alive.” Most fly fishers, myself included for a time, used the art of fly fishing for this very reason — to NOT thinking about going out. Looking at my data, I think that holds true for the vast majority of my readers at the Texas Fly Caster website.

Add the fact that people seem to be DONE with reading, and are winding DOWN their watching because of YouTube tinkering … I may as well be catching a falling fillet knife.

NEW EFFECT — “The Madison Effect”

There is always a chance. We had the “A River Runs Through It,” boom. We had the COVID boom. And now, just a few days ago, I received a phone call, “Have you seen that show, The Madison?” She sounded genuinely excited by what she saw of fly fishing The Madison River on the new Taylor Sheridan series. “It’s just so beautiful. I want to learn to fly fish,” she said.

I had predicted a possible “Madison Effect” in a post about a week earlier, and I had to let her know. One call does not an avalanche make, but maybe there is some hope for fly fishing after all.

I would certainly rather it be a positive avalanche, than the last COVID avalanche. It not only created a HUGE BUBBLE in fly fishing, it also wrecked the industry as inexperienced business owners and manufacturers made a series of bad business blunders that doomed some businesses and leave others hanging on by a two-pound tippet right NOW.

ONE GREAT THING about being an aging fly fisher? We are old enough to have seen these things come and go. Nothing much outside of fly fishing itself, excites us to reach out and try to grab another falling fillet knife with the one good hand we have left. Let’s just see what happens next.