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Sam Rocha

@rational.angler

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Bob Clay is the acclaimed maker of Riverwatch bamboo rods in Hazleton, British Columbia, Canada. The enormous scale of his influence is as indisputable as it is well-earned. He belongs to a distinguished line of British Columbian steelheaders like Money, Brayshaw, Haig-Brown, Maxwell, and Grantham.

Although his reputation is secure, he continues to innovate, showing that the proper appreciation of history and tradition is not a static imitation of the past -- it is dynamic, creative, and future-oriented. Real traditions are alive, not dead; they change and grow as much as they remember and remain; they are newer than they are old.

This video shows Clay working in his shop on a sunny fall Sunday afternoon.

@riverwatchrods

#swingtheflymovement #britishcolumbiastudies #bamboorodmaker #riverwatchrods #steelheadflyfishing taken in Hazelton, British Columbia by @rational.angler

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13

6 days ago

"A mark of all the best fishermen I have known has been power of concentration, and this, perhaps, is the most important single quality a fisherman can have. This does not mean that fishing must become a strain. I like nothing better than to tempt fate by slinging my rod under my arm with a full line out while I take time to watch some ducks circle or to fill a pipe and light it. But it does mean that every cast should have an idea behind it and should be fished out to the end with the expectation of catching a fish. The men who do this are those who have a close knowledge of fish and water, who know where a fish is likely to be lying, how he will be feeding, what the current will do to the fly, and, not least, who realize that their knowledge is imperfect and that the unexpected can happen. All this knowledge will force concentration on a man almost in spite of himself."

Roderick Haig-Brown, *A River Never Sleeps* (New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), 272-73.

The entire essay ("Why Fish?") defends fly-fishing as an "intellectual" and "orthodox" activity of the "civilized" person. It comes as close as anything I have read to articulating what it might mean to be a "rational angler."

The photograph features a wild hen steelhead I caught on a Grantham Muddler tied-in-hand dry fly, skated. It is the first fish landed on my Archer Megin SRS custom bamboo rod, paired with an old Hardy Perfect lined with a Bridge Tributary.

@haigbrownhouse, @archerbamboo, @hardyfishing, @bridge_116.2

#swingtheflymovement #dryflysteelhead #rationalangler #haigbrown #philosophyinflyfishing by @rational.angler

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7

a month ago

This is the fifth and final episode focused on "Oly's Dean," a Patagonia film made with support of the Native Fish Society, directed by Asher Koles and Chase White.

In this commentary, I focus on the philosophical tradition of Romanticism in relation to the film. This interprets "Oly's Dean" as a double-exposure of Romanticism's developmental and ecological themes.

@patagonia_flyfish, @native_fish_society, @bloodknots, @anadromous

#swingtheflymovement #publichumanities #newromanticism #philosophyinflyfishing #steelheadflyfishing taken in University of British Columbia Vancouver by @rational.angler

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0

a month ago

"In 1998, the last year I angled for steelhead with a point on the hooks I tied my flies on, I fished the river for more than a hundred days. Three of the seventy-seven steelhead I hooked did die, if turning belly-up in water where I couldn't get to them or bleeding from the gills means anything. During that season I also brought in a steelhead eyeball on my hook.

That winter I gave a lot of thought to this awkward realization. I had gotten to the point with my angling where I could no longer justify the effect I was having on the summer steelhead I hooked. I had crossed a watershed and now felt compassion on some level for them.

At the suggestion of my niece, Laura, I began experimenting with cutting the points off the hooks I tied my muddlers on. I cut them off just behind the barb, leaving the bend on the hook. I do this so that I can attach my fly to a guide, using the guide as a keeper. In fly angling, a keeper is something I can hook my fly to so I don't have to reel all my line and tippet onto the reel as I leave a run, then have to get all the line back out again at the next run I fish.

I used a fine-grit ceramic stone to smooth off the jaggedness of the cut. This final honing was so that the end of the hook would slide over and not pierce and tear the skin of a steelhead's mouth.

After about a month of fishing pointless during the 1999 season, I got over wanting to see close up the fish that had just risen to my fly out in the river. I persevered and did get used to it, and now I am happy that I can't bring a steelhead to me anymore."

Lee Spencer, *A Temporary Refuge: Fourteen Seasons with Wild Summer Steelhead* (Ventura, CA: Patagonia Works, 2017), 127.

Photos are of a version of Spencer's Burnt Toast I tied. (I forgot to burn the proverbial toast.) I cut the hook and rose a juvenile and adult summer steelhead to it this past summer from a position from which I could not ethically play a fish.

#steelheaddryfly #swingtheflymovement #philosophyinflyfishing #leespencer #wildsteelhead by @rational.angler

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2 months ago

This episode is part four in the five-part series of analysis of "Oly's Dean," a Patagonia and Native Fish Society film by Asher Koles and Chase White.

The foci of this study are the sounds of the film and how they add to my interpretation of the film as a Romantic text, aligned with the philosophical tradition of Romanticism.

@patagonia_flyfish, @native_fish_society, @bloodknots, @anadromous, @fishtheswing

#swingtheflymovement #philosophyinflyfishing #publichumanities #thenewromanticism #soundstudies taken in University of British Columbia Vancouver by @rational.angler

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0

2 months ago

"I cannot altogether separate this obsession with rivers from the lore and habit of fishing and hunting, yet I think it is a natural thing for a man to love a river, and I think I should still want to live by one if I had never caught a fish or fired a gun. A river is life and light, especially in timbered country; it is always the easiest natural way of travel and it is used as such by many creatures besides man. No clean river can be other than beautiful and it has changing beauty. Even a streamlet can become impressive in floodtime and the greatest of rivers has a light, almost intimate quality of gentleness at its lowest summer level."

Roderick Haig-Brown, *Measure of the Year* (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 1950/2011), 234.

These photos are of a river and creek on the coast of British Columbia. They were taken this July. The final photo includes Peter Judas, fishing for steelhead; Pat Demeester was also present. The photography was shot with a Nikonos V camera loaded with Fujifilm 400 35 mm film.

#beautifulbritishcolumbia🇨🇦 #roderickhaigbrown #bcstudies #conservation #rationalangler by @rational.angler

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4

2 months ago

This episode is the third in a five-part study of "Oly's Dean," a film by Patagonia and Native Fish Society, directed by Asher Koles and Chase White.

In this episode, I focus on the imagery of the film in relation to the philosophical theme of romanticism..

@patagonia, @native_fish_society, @bloodknots, @anadromous, @cinemaofmalick

#swingtheflymovement #philosophyinflyfishing #steelheadflyfishing #publichumanities #newromanticism taken in University of British Columbia Vancouver by @rational.angler

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3

2 months ago

"The idea of using a front extended body for skating flies was conceived in 1993 while fly fishing for summer-run steelhead on the Thompson River in British Columbia.

Riffle-hitched flies and flies with forward-slanted wings work well enough, but I wanted a fly that was attached securely and directly to the leader, and one that would skate high on the water without pulling under.

The pattern shown here is the final result of many trial-and-error shapes and sizes, from a mouse to a sedge, but all dressed with deer hair and a forward extension to make the fly skate better. Used with a floating fly line, this unsinkable fly will stay on the surface as long as it is moving. In principle it acts like a kite where the line is attached to a point back of the leading edge.

The fly will skate in line with the leader, so
directional changes can be made by tossing upstream or downstream mends in the fly line. Tie it on with a turtle or clinch knot, but don’t riffle-hitch it."

Ron Grantham, "Grantham's Sedge," *Fly Lines* (British Columbia Federation of Fly Fishers, September 2002), 22.

Pictured materials: size 6 Mustad Heavy Wet hook, a waxed wooden toothpick for the body extension, waxed thread, seal fur body, and deer hair wing and head. Tied in hand and headed to a friend in Oregon.

#swingtheflymagazine #dryflysteelhead #bcstudies #steelheadfliesofthepnw #tiedinhand by @rational.angler

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3 months ago

This episode is part two of a five-part series focused on "Oly's Dean," a Patagonia film by Asher Koles and Chase White with support from Native Fish Society.

This part discusses the characters in the film: the Hickman family and the Dean River understood as a central character.

@patagonia, @bloodknots, @anadromous, @native_fish_society, @fishtheswing, @kathryncase, @fishthedean

#swingtheflymovement #publichumanities #philosophyinflyfishing #anewromanticism #steelheadflyfishing taken in University of British Columbia Vancouver by @rational.angler

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3 months ago

I am happy to announce that the first business meeting of the qathet Streamkeepers Society took place this week in qathet (Powell River), BC, Canada. I will serve as the Academic Director of the Society and plan to integrate this conservation work into the content of Rational Angler.

#sunshinecoastconservationassociation #tlaaminnation #beautifulbc🇨🇦 #swingtheflymovement #conservationangler taken in Qathet Regional District by @rational.angler

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2

3 months ago

Pat "Patches" Demeester brings a wild steelhead to hand on a late 19th century single hand greenheart rod and a mid 20th century Sharpes of Aberdeen reel with a double taper dry line swinging a wet fly.

Mentions: @cutthroatcoast, @sharpes_of_aberdeen

#swingtheflymovement #keepemwet #vintageflytackle #steelheadflyfishing #swingthefly by @rational.angler

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4

3 months ago

This episode begins a five-part series of commentary on "Oly's Dean," a recent film by Asher Koles and Chase White released by Patagonia and Native Fish Society.

In this introduction, I describe the philosophical method of hermeneutics that will be employed for this series and contrast it with earlier methods.

Mentions: @bloodknots, @anadromous, @patagonia, @native_fish_society, @fishtheswing, @kathryncase

#swingtheflymovement #philosophyinflyfishing #publichumanities #beautifulbc🍁 #steelheadflyfishing taken in University of British Columbia Vancouver by @rational.angler

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3 months ago