The pocket swirls in whorls of ruffled riffle
flanked by funnelling flumes of race and runnel
while fly-line dangles down the bouldered channel;
it slaloms the shoulders where lissome waters carom
and sparkling spangles jostle, solar blossom.
Then all the elasticity of sunlight
flows down his arm and flexes at the sweet spot
as, to double-haul, he loads his fly-rod slingshot.
Taut as the boom and gurdy of a troller,
it catapults, extracts the line like a molar.
As his back-cast springs and bends its graphite back,
the rod draws a starry flash like a lightning smack
and mints a constellation. A zodiac
forms in the air as his forward flick flecks arcs
with droplets blizzarding down in wizard's sparks.
The thaumaturgic aura casts its sleight,
transforms his rod and line to a pen of light -
he lifts the fountain-wand and starts to write.
His strokes are swift and slippery as Houdini's,
his motions smooth and shadowy as a genie's.
And he spells his casts in shade on jade reflections,
in line-rips shined with sprays of splash-torn sequins,
in glittery sweeps and swoops by jittery aspens.
His flourished cursives slish-slash through the haze
until the fly free-falls through the burnished blaze.
It drops like a seed on the pocket from the skies.
Will a sizeable sorcerer's prize materialize?
He focuses his Wiccan powers. A rise!
The grand surprise he strives to bring about?
He strikes at the magic trick of the vanished trout!
This week’s typing tip is in response to a question by Hatches reader, Nick S. from Boise, ID. Nick wanted to know if we had any suggestions for a small, lightweight fly tying vise to use streamside, or on backcountry fly-in/ hike-in fly fishing trips.
GLOBE PEQUOT ( THE LYONS PRESS, FALCON), November 1997
Binding Type: Hardcover
Retail Price: $16.95 at the Hatches Store
ISBN: 1-55821-067-9
“The trout’s biggest advantage is selectivity, and we can counteract it only by knowing the insects that make up his diet. This is the reason for the study of stream entomology by the angler, and it is often the weak link in his skill.”
-Ernest Schwiebert
Trout Stream Insects: An Orvis Streamside Guide is by no means a new book. However, since it was first published in 1990, it has successfully been introducing novice …
Called the “bobbin of bobbins,” Marc Petitjean’s “Thread Through Bobbin,” aims to solve a few classic design limitations of standard bobbins.
Sand Creek is a pretty little piece of trout water that harbors some very fussy fish. Clear water in a small creek demands a quiet approach; casting from the bank is a good strategy when fishing small flies to springtime trout. Photo by Russ Forney
Springtime in Wyoming can be pretty elusive. Just when the first flush of prairie wildflowers sweetens the air, the next storm buries them under a foot of snow. Somewhere between the first Meadowlark and the last new calf, winter finally begins to relax its icy grip. …
With rubber legs showing up in more and more fly patterns, one common problem fly tier’s are facing is that they get in the way when tying a whip finish knot. In this week’s Tying Tips, Hatches Magazine staff member Alex Cerveniak shares three quick and easy ways to keep those rubber legs out of the way.
|  Hatches is an annual publication with a strong devotion to professional writing, beautiful photography and informative articles pertaining to both the artistic and practical aspects of fly tying. Each issue features 13 featured articles that span a massive 96 pages.
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