Sunday, April 06, 2014

Lowland Expedition

BRIEF VISITATION
Altered Agenda
ain't got no button box
RELICS FROM A BYGONE ERA
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.. A funny thing happened on the way to Missoula, Montana. We paused for some sightseeing and spent a couple of days on a pretty little river.
.. It sometimes runs along the side of Interstate 15 and is most inviting to fishers of the fly. It's original name was the Wisdom River: good enough for us.
.. We'd been thinking and driving and driving and thinking. We don't have a plastic button box with hundreds of super synthetic latest fashion flies in all sizes and colors.
.. We don't have a fly reel decorated with a dead head. We don't wear a ball cap advertising a mega corporation. We don't put that cap on our head so that the bill shades one ear or our neck.
WISDOM SPRING
.. We certainly don't have a fish pole with strands of unpronounceable fibers and girdled with twinkly spots of the latest resin. Our sticks are of bamboo and fiberglass. They have trained our muscles and reflexes. They fit. We're too old to change now.
.. We generally only drink beer with meals and would rather sip a fine malt with friends in quiet conversation.
.. We have an array of digital cameras but shoot more film for production work and publication. Our raiment is dated, tailored, mostly of wool and keeps us warm and doesn't change with passing fancy and the latest marketing campaign.
.. Our fedora is waxed and old. It's held up for several decades and still sheds water and shades us from the sunlight. We don't have to look forward to having bits of our ears whittled away because the bill on our cap was shading our neck.
.. We wear a tweed coat and carry some hand crafted fly boxes. Many of our reels were hand fitted and tuned sixty years or more ago. They still work fine and the fish don't seem to mind.
.. The torch has long since passed from us to the new breed of gonzo fishers. Beer for beer's sake. Drown fish in the air for an ego satisfying portrait. Go Pro to elevate personal accomplishments. Travel to exotic venues for "ad - venture."
.. Driving along the Montana byways is good for the soul. We no more needed to see the Orvis dog and pony show than we needed another hemorrhoid. They have decided that traditional dinosaurs like ourselves, (who wear tweed and sip Scotch Whiskey,) are a market that is unworthy of their marketing efforts. It's absolutely true. The market has shifted to the new royalty of fly fishing. That royalty has new ideas. It has new goals. It has caprice and whimsey. It has new money.
.. We enjoy a bit of solitude. We don't text our latest conquest to the world. We don't even cram our blog with advertisements to the detriment of information. We have the ability to change our itinerary and fish a spell on one of Montana's unsung jewels. Wisdom comes in many forms - even if the skwala didn't show and even if we don't have a button box. We caught a few fish too.
.. CLICK HERE FOR REPORT.
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WALLPAPER:  PULLED PORK, COLESLAW, BEANS, CORNBREAD, CAROLINA SAUCES