Perseverance

Some days a river can give the appearance of being dead. When the Graham brothers and I arrived at the East Branch of the Delaware, Sunday, May 3, this seemed one of those days. I decided that rather than gearing up I would lie down in the van and take a nap. The Grahams went off downstream to seek their fortune.

Upon awakening, I took my wading staff and walked down to see how the boys were doing. I found them well downstream, gazing patiently towards the far bank. Neither was casting, a sure sign that no fish were working. When I reached them, Ed observed that taking a nap was the best idea of the day.

Eventually, Ed and I headed back upstream, leaving Jim standing like a heron in the flow. Halfway back to the car, to our surprise, we found a steadily rising fish. Ed decided to try for him. Ed is a fine caster and presented the fly perfectly a number of times. The fish ignored the imitation. Jim came wandering up to us and Ed suggested he try for this very selective trout. Jim’s presentations brought no more interest than had Ed’s. Finally, Jim decided to make one last cast. Nothing. Then the fish promptly rose again. It’s hard to walk away from a rising fish. Jim proceeded to cast again, his fly line rolling out smoothly, the fly touching the water gently. Nothing. Cast again, and again, then again. Whoops, he’s taken the fly, fish on. A bit of excitement occurred until Jim could pin a heavy 17-inch brown against his leg. A very slow evening had ended with a surprising success. Sure enough, “if at first you don’t succeed…” had been proven correct.

Willy Landem, my Texas fishing buddy, and his cousin “Split” Cane called the other day demanding I run one of my springtime baseball quizzes. Willy is so confident of hitting my pitches that he told me, “When I win the flies, I’ll take some more of those Lime Trudes you gave me.” That sort of cockiness deserves a Sal Maglie shave. Don’t dig in too good, Willy.

Okay, first pitch will be a warm-up batting practice, 75 mph, two-seam fast ball. The name of the English fly fisher who sent Theodore Gordon a set of his dry flies was ? That pitch should land in the upper deck.

Now for a nasty slider, low and away: Harold Steele Gillum built exquisite bamboo fly rods. His nickname was ? Take an extra base if you can name his one and only retail outlet.

Dan Bailey’s fly shop was famous for a wall showing the outlines of trout four pounds or better. The name of the first angler to put the outline of a fish on that wall was ? Take an extra base if you an name the stream that fish came from. Swing batter, swing.

Now for a real baseball question—no, it is not about the Boston Red Sox. This pitch is a Carl Hubbell screwball down and in. What pitcher pitched a complete game despite having a leg broken by a line drive in the early innings? Steal second base if you can name the team he pitched for. Oops, the catcher’s throw went into center field. Go on to third base if you can name the hitter of the line drive. To add insult to injury, that pitcher lost the game two to one.

Okay, I count eight questions. A batting average of .750 earns you two poorly tied flies. The correct answers will appear in the next column. Send answers to PO Box 103, Hankins, NY 12741 or 570/224-6172.