Zen , and the art of upstream spiders

I walked along a section of my local beck the other day , its a section I have not fished for a couple of seasons , in fact I think the last time was the first day of the season a couple of years ago.  Its a heavily treed section that suffers badly later in the season from low flows and shade  But it contains a large head of small eager brownies and now as I can see the trout season approaching like a long awaited sunrise after an arctic winter it is  just the ticket for an opening day venue.  Early on in the year its an attractive series of runs and pools . Later in the year the series of falls dry out and there is very little movement.

Here is a photo of the stretch in mid july during the dog days of summer. It always beats me where the fish hide when those months of low water strike.

The first trip will be as usual both a celebration of things getting going again but also a bit of a trip down memory lane. I usually rake out an old Bruce and Walker, a rod that I have had for twenty odd  years and the only rod I have ever worn out, well when I say I wore it out I had to have the handle rebuilt as I had worn holes in the cork. That was not due to poor quality , quite the contrary it was built superbly but I simply wore it out. Back then for very many years I only had one rod.  It was used for small streams , large rivers and even still water fishing . If I was going fly fishing it was the rod I took.   Nymphs , dries and anything else . If it was too long I have been known to just take the two sections apart and cast the top one. If it was to short I held it at arms length.  When I look at all the rods I possess now and there is more than a few I wonder how it happened. How did I manage to convince myself I need such a range of rods when for very many years I managed very well with that one rod? it was so well used it became an extension of me allowing me to not even think about  anything apart from the fly at the business end.  Line choice wasn't an issue as the rod is rated 3 to 5 weight.  In fact if today someone told me I had to just use one rod for the rest of time it would be that one. Even with all the fancy stuff I have in the rack.

Anyway you might say I am just been soft but I like to hang on to something of the past and using that rod and fishing familiar water on the first day of the season provides a certain continuity to things.  Just as the  method I will utilise is a nod to the past. As although I will be hoping for rising fish I am pretty sure a team of spiders fished upstream will probably find me the fish. That old rod is perfect for spiders its full soft action is great for close range fishing. In fact it has all the qualities that new manufacturers seem to be rediscovering for river fishing.  Incidentally I have learnt over the last few seasons that the method of upstream spiders is very effective for small streams , you the reader might be shaking your head at this and muttering didnt he know that well despite fishing a stream thats had fly anglers on it for nigh on 140 years and most of that time they would be fishing spiders its been a new one on me for the last few years, I have learnt it aint easy and it really requires becoming one with things and getting into that  zone .  Fishing with that rod certainly wont harm that. Neither incidentally will getting into the beck about half a mile below where I will be expecting action . It gives me time to work the wrinkles out of an arm that hasn't cast in months and to get into the rhythm that the method requires. I have  learnt that concentration is everything you have to more than just look you have to see the leader in the water checking for movement and at the same time you have to look for a sudden flash of a turning fish or a boil under the surface at first I found it bloody hard. I would say its a bit like learning to drive a car lots to do and a few places to watch all at the same time and until it becomes automatic your no bloody good at it.   Incidentally  I have occasionally wondered if there really is a sort of hunters sixth sense that we still have. Hugh Falkus mentions it in one of his books and other anglers have spoke of it.  I know in my coarse fishing days sometimes you would suddenly  be aware that something was about to happen . Perhaps its just the moment when your senses become truly in tune with your surroundings but at times when fishing my senses would sharpen and I knew a take would follow.  Coincidence ? well perhaps but I am not sure.   Fishing the upstream spider has proven to be a bit like that I have found myself tightening into a fish and thinking I am not really sure why I lifted the rod.  Perhaps a half hidden flash of silver did lodge in my brain but the tired old eyes didn't actually see it.  Perhaps there is more than a hint of zen around all this , Certainly I have always thought meditation and fishing share many things . Perhaps I should take the tenkara rod and sit cross legged on the bank for half an hour of meditation before entering the water.

“The more you look, the more you see.” 

― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance