Spring Fly Fishing Sounds Abound – All Aboard the Sound Train

shannon | March 6, 2018

What is Fly Fishing Music?

It’s way past time for one of those famous Texas Fly Caster Musical Interludes! Just like the buzz I get from spring fly fishing, music seems to piggyback the excitement – like a freshman on South Padre spring break. This spring (GOD let it be spring NOW please) I am more loaded for musical bear than ever in the past.

ROLLING THUNDER DRIVING HURRICANE of SOUND

Okay, that was a sensational headline, but I finally got everything lined up on the skiff at the END of last season – for music on-board. There’s video of the cutting of holes into a perfectly good boat, and there’s the running of the marine grade speaker wire (correct gauge for Ohm needs), and now all that is left is to mount the head unit and wire it up.

I really don’t know why any technical poling skiff owner would roll silent. I mean, just being on the skiff and moving is beyond joyous and a custom sound track to go with? Icing on the proverbial cake, in my book. Of course, the most difficult part of the install is what’s left to go, and that’s why it seemed like a good stopping point when the season closed me out last year.

WHAT’S ON DECK TO START THE SEASON

First, the music has to “go with” the (my) environment — a skiff on the move. There is Texas Radio, but I tend to leave behind The Big Beats. The playlist has to have some sense of … flow. Of course my musical experience has expanded exponentially since subscribing to the iTunes unlimited music service. My downloads number in the thousands of dollars, and I have saved more thousands by listening to bad music and not buying it.

There is some carryover from last year, one of the better years for music in this decade. Check out Robert Plant’s solo release -“ Carry Fire” is a given. Neil Young’s “Hitchhiker” contains some fantastic demos that bring yet another perspective to his genius. The “Texas Gentlemen” are in the highest rotation – TX Jelly is just a rollicking wake ride. Going a little faster, you have to trust me when I say, The Isley Brothers & Santana turn in a winner with “Power of Peace.” Make no mistake Santana leaves his mark on this project, and it wouldn’t be the same without him. And for some real Texas ear barbecue, “Tell the Devil I’m Gettin’ There as Fast as I Can,” is RW Hubbard at his best; play that when you’re poling and the fish will start coming to you – hoodoo voodoo style, slow swashing tails and mud trails.

COMING SOON

I am still waiting for the full release of Muse’s CD, and in just a few days we’ll be getting a new release by the Decemberists – “I’ll Be Your Girl” will drop. Jack White has something coming on March 23, Willie Nelson – April 27, March 9 it’s David Byrne’s “American Utopia” – the title alone makes it mandatory listening.

ANSWER:

Fly fishing music is whatever you say it is. Fly fishing is a soul transporter, and if we attach a sound track to our special reality? It just adds another layer of memory to the times in which we find ourselves escaping.