Seize Your Moments! The Fly Fisherman’s Give-and-Take
I knew I had one of those landmark appointments yesterday, and I also knew there was a chance to plant another fly fishing seed at the radiologist’s office in Forth Worth. So I took one of my circle-hooked black-on-black Clousers, stuck it in a baby zip-loc and stuck it in my shirt pocket.
My doctor would not be so lucky as to be given this killer fly, even if he’s headed to Yellowstone this summer. Besides, this is a local fly. This fly was the real bait to bring a young fly fisher further into the light. In this case, he’s already seen the light, but I just wanted to make sure he had at least one silver bullet for this spring’s rabid largemouth bass population.
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So as I sat in the tiny exam room, I caught and stopped his mom passing by the open door. She is one of the nurses from my radioactive days. She first wanted to know I was “all right?” To which I replied, all good, just a normal routine. I whipped the fly out of my shirt pocket and handed it to her.
“We watch and read all the time! You sure are busy. What a life!” she said. I figured I would let that one go, and not try and explain. It sounded good anyway.
I give flies away all the time. Call them small investments. However, I never expect a return on my investment. Heck! I have even geocached flies in their proper hot spots in the wilderness. I am going to start geocaching again this spring – by the way!
Now, I don’t tell this story to pat myself on the back. I tell it to provide an example of how you can bring fly fishing to someone, even one person, you don’t even know. When I first started my radiation treatments, the nurse and her son had never fly fished. Now, as I worked her over during my daily radiation treatments (late 2015), they BOTH came into the fold. That’s pretty great.
I also tell this story because, ever so rarely there’s more than one reward for the effort. I received a text last night:
“Hey Mr. Drawe, this is Garrett. I just wanted to say thanks for the Fly, I caught a lot of striped bass with one of these at Possom Kingdom. It would be awesome if I could ask you questions about fly fishing in the future. Thanks again for the fly, it is awesome.”
Thanks Garrett. I needed and appreciate that text more than you possibly know, and thanks for reading and watching!
Follow-up tests were good. Still no recurrence, and I confirmed what I thought made sense; the further away one gets from cancer, the less likely there is a chance of it coming back. So … I got that going for me anyway.
NOTE – For subscribers only – a new story coming out this weekend on: “The State of BIG BOX Retail in America; How it Relates to Fly Fishing Retailers.” So watch your e-mail “IN” box!
Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Causes, Complimentary Reading, Fly Fishing Geocache, Fly Tying, Free Fly Fishing Stuff, Life Observed
