Page 45 - Studio International - May 1974

Multiple exercise

William Allan

Fishing has been an art form, a means of When I was seven, my Uncle George took me Young Rainbow Yuba River 1973
gathering food and almost everything in steelhead fishing on a winter river. The fish Watercolour on paper
between. Lately it has been sputtering toward were not taking and I walked downstream to Over a period of years my friend, Robert
a kind of natural science. I have always been a see if anyone was catching fish. On returning I Hudson, and I have developed a standard of
little suspicious of science, because most of the saw a large Dolly Varden on the bank. It was stream etiquette, for the first spring fishing
phenomena explained are separate from the the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. My trip. I am less patient and can tie my tippits
person giving the explanation. The greatest Uncle told me it had been caught on my line — and flies faster and usually take the first pool.
phenomenon is usually the viewer. so, it was my fish. I was thrilled, but imagine The first half-mile we alternate pools, being
Horrible though it is, I have to pay as much how it was mine if I wasn't there. Uncle George careful to pass each other at a distance, as not
attention to the 'prize catch', filled with seven sensed my hesitation and set about convincing to put the fish down. If this is impossible, we
marshmallows, twenty-six pieces of corn and me that it was truly my fish. I wanted to wait and watch the other fish his water out.
fourteen salmon eggs, as to the 4 lb native believe him. The next mile sees the slow start of minor
brown, won on a tiny fly and slipped back into hysteria. Less caution, occasional rocks rolled
the stream. into the other's riffle. Toward the end of this
I have probably had more conscious variety stretch — two shadows streaking through the
of experience as a fisherman than if I had woods, occasionally making a wretched dab
followed any other pursuit. From the with the fly. The next half-mile sees an
meat-fisher to perhaps occasionally a gentleman. immense change. Whoever has had the most
Fortunately a lot of years have mellowed the luck, or feels the most guilty, takes on an air of
lower desires. magnificent benevolence and wishes his partner
What breed of trout inhabits certain streams an excess of territory, flies, unhooking from
becomes insignificant when compared with the the bushes and a cheer for every move.
fact that each stream, each strain of fish is
unique and not duplicated elsewhere. This also
dictates how we should treat them. The
difficult part is that we pursue, with great
multiplicity of need and intent, a rather
singular phenomenon.
Talking with a friend about our tendency to
move to grander and more distant waters, when
we had exhausted our interest in the familiar,
I wondered if it would be possible to make
different uses of the familiar — or better, to
make multiple uses of ourselves.

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