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