Monday, January 20, 2014

Duffers from the Past

     Watched a couple of videos last night.  Seeing Curt Gowdy and Lee Wulff fish the back waters of Labrador was a treat.  The film didn't miss a fishing moment.  Even showed them losing trout and having fishless retrieves.  Almost showed everything.
     Yet somehow the cameraman was always invisible.  That's one of the things that always gets me thinking.  There, down in the water, are the two heroes catchin' five pound brook trout like it was the most natural thing in the world.  They'd forged their way over sky, water and land to some wilderness that no one had seen in centuries.  Totally alone with nature.  Yet, somewhere, unseen, was someone shootin' the film.  And from all kinds of angles.  That person was there when the plane took off and again when it landed in the back of beyond.  How come they were never featured as the stars of the show?  Seems to me shootin' the film was the toughest job.
     On the upside Wulff flew his own float plane.  And hand-tied his own flies on the spot.  No vice, just hook, thread, feathers and hair with a drop of head cement.  I'd heard he could do that but had never seen it in action.  That was a treat.  When he was asked, Wulff simply said that where he came from there were no vices.  Had never even heard of them.  If you wanted to tie flies you used what you had.  Damn he made it look so easy.
     Also, watching Wulff and Gowdy throw out fly line was worth the price of admission.  Effortless pumping up of line speed to a layout of twenty or more yards.  Not even a grunt between 'em with the final heave.  Poetry.

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