Wait for the world to become perfect?

Easter this year is relatively late, but one can’t tell that by the weather. Today would be a beautiful March day and even more so if it were a day in February. Something I’m now curious about is, when spring is running two to four weeks behind “average,” does the phenological pattern get compressed or does the whole year shift? I suspect the latter. I suspect even more that the answer isn’t that simple. What prompted such ponderings is that today is stream trout opener and I’ve been looking at hatch charts. The screen shot below shows what can usually be expected to be hatching at this time of year. Would the weather delay hatches by several weeks? I don’t know but it may be fun trying to research that over the next few days.

Hatch Chart for Southeast Minnesota Trout Streams

Midges hatch year round in southeast Minnesota. Fishing something like a mole fly or a parachute Adams in a smaller size would probably be wise unless there’s an obvious hatch that the fish are feeding on. I confess that, as often as I’ve read about the benefits of watching a stream for ten or twenty minutes before beginning to cast, I’ve yet to reach a fishable stretch  of a stream without already having a fly attached to the end of my tippet. That may well be the result of too many years fishing for panfish and bass and, in saltwater, stripers and bluefish. Finesse was rarely, if ever, needed for that kind  of fishing. Plus, patience is not one of my strong points.

Since this is Easter weekend, and Passover began recently, let me suggest you lay your hands on a copy of, and promptly read,  A River Runs Through It. If you’ve already read it but it’s been a long time, a reread would be worthwhile. Perhaps a couple of quotations will help convince you of the value and appropriateness of that suggestion, plus, it’s that time when apostles became fishers of men.

“As a Scot and a Presbyterian, my father believed that man by nature was a mess and had fallen from an original state of grace. […] As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God’s rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty. Unlike many Presbyterians, he often used the word ‘beautiful.‘”

“Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart—I don’t know what it is or where, because sometimes it is in my arms and sometimes in my throat and sometimes nowhere in particular except somewhere deep. Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.” 

The River

By Jim Harrison

Yes, we'll gather by the river,

the beautiful, the beautiful river.

They say it runs by the throne of God.

This is where God invented fish.

Wherever, but then God's throne is as wide

as the universe. If you're attentive you'll

see the throne's borders in the stars. We're on this side

and when you get to the other side we don't know

what will happen if anything. If nothing happens

we won't know it, I said once. Is that cynical?

No, nothing is nothing, not upsetting just

nothing. Then again maybe we'll be cast

at the speed of light through the universe

to God's throne. His hair is bounteous.

All the 5,000 birds on earth were created there.

The firstborn cranes, herons, hawks, at the back

so as not to frighten the little ones.

Even now they remember this divine habit

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