| I am not a misanthrope but I do shun the | | | | followed by the first. Then another took off |
| company of people when it comes to fly | | | | from a distant branch, which was followed by |
| fishing. When I have a stream to myself, I | | | | another from a white stone, and another, and |
| become more at ease, more aware of my | | | | another and another. |
| surroundings, and open to nature's bounty. I | | | | |
| am not so busy chatting about hatches, | | | | They appeared out of nowhere and soon the air |
| competing for water, or enviously eyeing the | | | | filled with hundreds of flickering, |
| skillful ease of a fellow angler's cast. One | | | | fluttering butterflies, a sunlit, gleaming |
| downside is that there is generally no one | | | | cloud of moving, expanding purple space. They |
| present to confirm or deny the size and | | | | filled the sky and danced as though engaged |
| number of trout I catch and release on any | | | | in some secret papilonian ritual. I stood |
| given day. Even worse, when something truly | | | | frozen, heart pounding, as my breathing |
| incredible happens no one is there to verify | | | | quickened. The multitude of butterflies, now |
| it. However, this is a small sacrifice for | | | | a shimmering, surreal entity, encircled me, |
| the pleasure such experiences in solitude | | | | enveloped me in a mystical whirlwind; then |
| brings. | | | | lanquidly floated high above, stopped and |
| | | | hovered as though poised on some mysterious |
| When I am on a stream solo, extraordinary | | | | looming precipice, then as one fluid mass, |
| things happen. One experience I will never | | | | tumbled off like air-born rapids down the |
| forget occurred while I was fishing a stream | | | | river valley and into the steep canyon. |
| near my home in the West Kootenays of | | | | |
| Southern British Columbia. This particular | | | | I remained motionless for a long time after. |
| day in July was like most of our summer days: | | | | I kept peering down into the canyon in hopes |
| scorching. There was no breeze, no clouds, no | | | | that the butterflies would emerge for an |
| shade, only the merciless weight of the sun. | | | | encore. My breathing slowly returned to |
| Thankfully, I was waist deep in the cool, | | | | normal but a strange, nervous tremor still |
| forgiving river, casting my fly toward a deep | | | | lay deep in my stomach. A slight breeze began |
| depression sunk into the opposite bank that | | | | to stir, and the sun dipped low over the |
| created a bit of a back eddy. The fly settled | | | | western hills, taking much of the oppressive |
| a few feet upstream of the eddy but the | | | | heat with it. Suddenly off the water, a large |
| current soon floated it into the seam. It | | | | mayfly emerged. I watched as another alighted |
| happened so fast - the splash, the set, the | | | | on the stream, drifting along on its current |
| trout hooked, played, and gently released - a | | | | only to be swallowed up in a fatal splash. I |
| nice sixteen inch rainbow. | | | | couldn't pass up a good Ephemerella grandis |
| | | | hatch. I tied on a red quill dun and cast |
| As I continued working the water, casually | | | | into the ebbing light, the sound of butterfly |
| casting into the riffles and holes, my eye | | | | wings still echoing in my head. |
| caught a flicker of something in the air. | | | | |
| Turning quickly to my right, I focused my | | | | It was a sublime moment and though the |
| gaze on the stunning, acrobatic convulsions | | | | experience may seem incidental to the |
| of a butterfly. The vibrant purple wings with | | | | fishing, I could not have witnessed it had I |
| orange sun-burst tips and white borders, | | | | not gone fly fishing. Wherever and whenever I |
| suggested a Lorquins Admiral. It dipped and | | | | go, whether alone or with others, it is for |
| fluttered through the air until it settled on | | | | the simple pleasure of being out on the water |
| a withered log at the edge of the stream. I | | | | amidst the wonders of the natural world, |
| saw another, an exact replica, take wing and | | | | seeking fish, and, if truly fortunate, |
| stumble drunkenly over the water. It was | | | | finding butterflies. |