"One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that."

~ Joseph Campbell




     As humans we have watched the patterns of the seasons and marked them systematically on our calendars. However, the reality of them is something more gradual. Spring can come early or late. It is seldom something that physically arrives like a train. Instead it morphs from one condition to another in subtle ways. While we can see the changes happening they seem to happen in small moments of presence and realization.  Every location on the planet gets to experience the season in time with the collaboration of Earth tilt, geography, weather patterns and more.

Fishing streams flow with the seasons too.  Streams slow down in the winter, gather ice and go to sleep. Then comes the spring and everything that comes with it. The streams slowly begin to melt out, build up current and start to sneak against the banks. The temperatures of the melt off keep the water just cool enough that the fish stay deep and stay sluggish for a while longer, conserving their energy for just a little longer and letting the food come to them instead of wasting energy on pursuit. Of course, the warmer seasons bring ideal feeding and thriving conditions that we connect to as our happiest days on the water.

The cycling spectrum of the seasons, when you pay attention and look at them closely, can act often as a compass for us in our lives. How many of us hunker in for the winter and tie flies, dream of the spring and summer months? Winter is a season of biding my time, resting, reflecting and sitting in preparation and planning for the oncoming year.  It is not surprising that I get prematurely enthusiastic every year by the melting of the snow and watching the renewal date for fishing licenses approach. Colorado has a way of kicking me  with beautiful clear spring like days that get dashed by slush storms and stubborn, stasis minded fish.

As I walked out into my yard today I noticed that once again I was watching the slushy spring snow storms blanketing everything in white, weighing down tree limbs and would melt away by noon. This process of the season has had the effect of watering areas of grass and garden sparking patches of chlorophyll greened grass, sprouts of plant matter and foolish blooms on trees.

The signs of the season are there for us if we slow down to their speed and recognize ourselves in them. Nature and the seasons have a way of reminding us that we must be present with what is in front of us and not lost in the illusion of what we imagine we want. We fool ourselves and are like the blooms of the aforementioned trees. We can't get ahead of the seasons without being hit by them. When we do, nature will surely remind us.

We all get that spring fever I think and we all jump the gun in life in other things too. Rather than waiting for the season to come. We push our lives and projects forward and sometimes in foolish directions to get there.  The season has its own plans and way. Just a few weeks after renewing our licenses here in Colorado, we get to watch the streams wash out almost overnight into raging muddy slop that washes through and away the stream bottom and channels that we thought we were committing to memory for a sure thing hole in the spring.

By later spring we are better though and maybe find ourselves on track and our biggest challenge is trying to decide where to fish or how to sidestep a patch of poison ivy. Our vehicles are loaded and ready. We are prepared for any free moment that presents itself to bolt and be lost in the settled new runs. We start to see fish rising again and we reaffirm our needs to keep to the techniques we seem to have forgotten slightly as we remove our flies and lines from surrounding trees or toss a sloppy cast that scares fish to the depths.

When we overlap and compare the seasons to our lives we see ourselves clearly and form a better relationship to nature and how our lives fit into that bigger picture. There is a synchronicity that we need to find and match to the reality before us. And it is not so difficult to do. We need only stop what we are doing and become present to the reality of experience before us. We can listen to what our intuition is telling us. We become better at this through practice in listening to ourselves and respecting that inner wisdom that rises. 

I believe strongly in looking to metaphor as way to understand the world we are in and where I am in relation to it. We must respect the seasons of the year and recognize the seasons of our inner lives. Our minds function very easily with metaphors and can use the abstract of them to process relative patterns to help us understand our place, role and what we need to do and when.

Recently I found myself out of sync with the seasons of my own life and making quick decisions that would have pulled me in way over my head. While my intentions were good they were not in time with the season of where I was personally and as a result I ignored the conditions and took steps in directions I didn't really want to go. We all do this at some point in our lives and it is important to remember that it is okay to step backwards and wait or to take a different path. 

It is fortunate that we are not alone. We have friends and can build a community that works together to help each other.  It is important to keep coming back to our center again and again. We can step back quickly as needed with frustration and without shame.

I suppose if there is one thing we can do other than to watch and sync ourselves with the seasons is to listen also to the people around us. Make real time to get together face to face if you can and listen to their thoughts, ideas and perspective. When we rely too much on our own minds, ideas and agendas we can head in the wrong direction  People in our community are an integral part of our world. Like the trees, grass and other plant life they can help us recognize the season.

Fishing teaches us patience, attention and perseverance. I will be renewing my license soon and preparing for the spring fishing all in good time but also “on time”.  I know that I am going to continue to practice tuning into and listening to the wisdom the seasons are communicating to me. I am going to let the seasons be my guide and make my changes and steps slowly. Life isn't a race but a series of transitions.

Happy Spring!

The Want or Need Test
I find great satisfaction in not owning more than I need and even more satisfaction from making some of the things I need.  The question I ask is always “Do I WANT it or do I NEED it?”

“Need items” always get preferential priority. They are easily identified as necessities to accomplish a job or to fulfill a need. (that is why they are called "needs" right?)

“Want items” get tucked away in my head until they disappear or maybe, on rare occasion, wander into the “Need list" again by accident or perseverance.  Yes, we can want things but I always come back to the question of "Why?"
The "why" is going to tell you a lot about your relationship to the things you own.

"Final filter" are the questions “Can I get it affordably?” followed by “Could I make one?” and finally “Do I really want to make one?”

Once it has cleared all of these, I get started with the brainstorming process which really is the beginning of the fun for me. From here I will either buy the item if available affordably or I will look at how I can make my own suitable version of the thing.  Some things are better just to buy and other things are really fun to make.

To Buy or To D.I.Y.?
There is something very nice about making something unique and not always feeling that you must spend a lot of money.  I find that I value things that I have made myself differently than those things that I have purchased. The items that I have made are a part of me. They came into being from my brain and hands using the materials that I gathered or discovered.

The D.I.Y. approach many not be your thing and I do understand how easy it is often to just buy the thing you want.  I believe that when we do make those purchases we should do so with thoughtfulness. Evaluate the practicality of an item that is already made and compare it to the quality you think you can do on your own design. "Can you make one as good or better?" Maybe you are like me though and just want to see if you can just do it?

My latest D.I.Y. Projects...Fly Tying Stations
The last few months I have been playing around with different ideas for fly tying stations.  Along the way I made a new one for myself plus one for a friend.  These D.I.Y. fly tying stations were both very affordable, practical and most of all functional. The materials kind of presented themselves to me. Taking my time along the way I was able to really think about unique features and what I wanted the esthetic of my finished products to look like.

There was no fancy or complicated joinery needed beyond attaching the clamp piece to the end of the base. Just some long wood screws worked wonderfully. It is important to pre-drill your screw holes to prevent splitting. 

I took a few more steps and added some tool holes.  Using my drill press and a Forster bit I created round sections where some small plastic containers I own could be inserted snugly.  Two of these hold my hooks and one of them is for putting my finished flies into. I tacked on some simple cork footings on the underside to keep the base safe on all surfaces.  I have a small Japanese tea box that I use to hold my spools, tools and small packet of feathers. The whole thing broken down takes up an amazingly small amount of space and is easy to travel with.

The Chips and Dip Fly Tying Station
My most recent fly tying station out of my workshop I found at a thrift store. I frequently browse the “wood” item section a thrift stores looking for cutting boards, bowls and discarded Eastern red cedar plaques with quaint passages decoupaged on them, etc.  This chips and dip dish stood out to me. It was sturdy, and I could immediately see a vise attached to it; a place for thread spools and tools. 

With a little planning and measuring I was able to lay out the different sized holes that I would drill for the tools and the spool posts. As I mentioned this one is for a friend who said she wanted a set up that would hold her vise, tools and threads. I think it turned out wonderfully and I will be keeping my eyes open for this and other similar wooden serving bowls.

 In closing, I want to say thanks to all my readers and all of the great feedback you give me.  I am very interested in seeing your ideas and D.I.Y. projects too.  I can feel the spring coming and see new snow in the mountain weather forecast which is good news for our Colorado streams...(Knock on wood!)  Should you think now that you might be interested in diving into D.I.Y.  I have added some additional thoughts below.

This little parable has probably been borrowed, adapted and rewritten countless times. The lesson holds truth though and I think my rewriting is just as apropos when it comes to the subject of being a fly-tier.  As students we sometimes mistake “quantity” for “mastery.”  We are likely to ignore the path under us while we follow the myth of the end result. The following are some of my latest musings on the process of creativity. Apply them and I promise you will enjoy your path on your way to your destination.

Applying Art Theory to our flies
My formal schooling is as an artist. I can sketch and draw from memory, paint well and have a visual eye for color theory.  I realized early on that the art of fly tying is very much a conduit for personal expression. Every fly tier goes through their process of wanting to create “the perfect fly”.  We also feel the need to explore different kinds of flies and materials along the way.  All of us slop our way through and leave a hundred “bad” flies in our wake. Please make those hundred bad flies and don’t look back. If you aren’t making mistakes you aren’t learning.

Give yourself permission to be messy and create bad flies.
Creativity is there for all of us to explore. I remember first learning to tie. I didn’t have a teacher, but I had enthusiasm. I just dove in and begin playing with techniques. Like all artistic skills, it is a messy process full of expletives from broken threads and unwinding hackles. You are going to make a lot of ugly flies and mistakes. The trick is to identify your mistakes along the way and make changes as you go.  To the best of my knowledge, there are no recorded savants in fly tying. We all learn by doing and hone our skills. So, it is important to give ourselves permission to play a bit, experiment and create bad flies.

Learn from others but guard against dogmatic ideas and notions
Along our tying process we learn little tricks, bad habits and what works best for each of us individually.  I am always open to suggestions of ways to do things, but I am put off by those who want to express their dogmatic arguments of how something is supposed to look or be done. If I see someone struggling I ask them if they want advice before just giving it to them. I don’t wish to impose myself on their learning process unless they want my help. I hope that others will respect my process of learning as well.

Don’t compare to others, instead find inspirations that you can apply.   
Often as learning tiers we make the mistake of holding our work up to others more experienced in tying.  If as an artist you had just start painting, would you hold your work up to someone who has had years more experience and beat yourself up for not painting as well?  Accept your work where it is at currently. Don’t copy but instead be inspired by other’s work.  While we would like to believe that there is some perfect standard, we should be striving for that from with ourselves.  Your fly designs will improve over time and will stand in their own authenticity.

Creativity and the theory of less.  
It is a myth that creativity comes from having unlimited choices. Creativity comes from intentionally limiting yourself. Having virtually unlimited choices is a Western idea… We can find quite a lot of practicality and creativity doing things with the few choices we intentionally give ourselves.  See for yourself in your next fly tying session how many different variations of flies you can make by limiting your selection of materials. Variety will rise and thrive in your work and it will be a kind of variety that is organic and personalized.

Fall in love with your work.
Having fewer choices will push you to look closer and make choices that are much more focused in every step. We learn the subtleties of our designs. Having limitation creates focus to detail that lets us fall in love with our work.  Each hook you put in your vise is a clean slate for you to improve your technique and develop an understanding of your work and design.

Every January people seem to jump in and make resolutions of all kinds. Usually to only find that the strength of their resolve is not what they think it was. I believe that identifying your motivations is the key to any life change. Motivating yourself to make changes in your life is and should be a slow but steady process. Forming new habits and patterns for our lives requires more dedication than just a pronouncement. It takes having a foundation and a map for getting to where you want to go. Perhaps it also takes a compass to help guide you on your path.

I have been juggling this issue in my own life for quite a while now and recently stumbled onto a book that has presented such a map and compass.  I share this philosophy with you today in hopes that you too will be able to apply it in your own life in a meaningful way and discover your own potential and happiness.

I have a tradition of each year picking a word or idea to be my inspiration for the year.  This year the word found me in a book I happened to pick up at a bookstore. The word is “Ikigai”.

Ikigai translates roughly as “the happiness of always being busy.” Let’s pause here on the word “busy”.  This philosophy is not about filling your life with meaningless tasks or overwhelming work.
Ikigai is about finding your life’s purpose and stepping into that place where you can reside and be productive, happy and at peace.  Breaking the characters down literally translates to “life – to be worthwhile – Armor (to be first into battle or taking initiative as a leader) – and finally, beautiful or elegant”   

The book I mention is called “IKIGAI –the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” by Hector Garcia and Francesc  Miralles.  While the book looks at longevity at times a being the motivation for seeking your ikigai, for myself that is not as relevant as the literal map it provides in a very easy to understand Venn diagram.  Ikigai is not one thing but many things coming together to give our lives meaning , value, context, direction, happiness and peace.

Four intersecting  circles show how each of these areas work together to not just help you identify your ikigai but also once you understand your ikigai help you to see how your ikigai fits into and affects other places in your life.  This is not quite as simple as filling in the blanks but it has served me as a way to ask myself some questions and to analyze my own life in a way that I can identify imbalances and weaknesses that have been blocking areas of joy and happiness.

One way to identify the core of your own ikigai lies is to look at those activities that you do that you get utterly lost in. Those things that make time stop existing in your mind and that your mind finds most contentment. The ikigai we all likely share as anglers is time on the river fishing. We can find ourselves lost in the action to the point that we forget to eat a lunch some days. Any time we find ourselves lost in peace and joy is a good indicator that you are working through your own ikigai.

 As I mentioned before the book seems to have some focus of appealing to westerners seeking longevity in life but the message and lessons of ikigai are still at the center of that. I believe it is a western ideal that puts the destination ahead of the path. This said there is a lot to be gained in reading about these areas of the book as well. Ikigai can have positive influences as well on all aspects of your life. It encompasses living with intent, passion and a mission to serve the world with your existence.

I hope to discuss my own process of exploring my own ikigai along the way in this new year. Ikigai is not so much what we do but how and why we do it. The journey of seeking and living into your ikigai is exciting and mind opening.   I have already started the year off pretty well by picking up my practice of meditation and improved diet.  I am examining how I live, make a living and interact with the world. I am able to look at my many facets of self, the projects that I want to work on and the people I want to be an active part of a community with.

It is important to start any journey by removing all distractions that can arise and take you down those old paths that havn't served you or your life. With the exception of announcing this post I am not participating on Facebook or social media. Instead I am revisiting the things in my life that make me feel whole and engaged with my world.

I can recommend this book highly as a great insightful way to approach making your life better and more meaningful. The information inside follows examining the lives of people in Japan who live to be 100 years old or more. This involves not just the lifestyle they live but the diet and mindful awareness of thier lives. 

I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

October fishing is bittersweet. I am never sure if my latest outing is going to be my last for the season before I pack it in and call it a year.  This last week I was lucky enough after a long weekend of work to get a Monday afternoon to fly up the hill and get some fishing time in.

While fishing the creek of choice on Monday I was able to slow down to appreciate the simple stuff around me. The leaves on the trees had turned golden and the air temperature was holding in at a very comfortable sunny 70 degrees.  The water was clear and the flow was very fish-able with delightful aerated pockets.  

I was thinking about the imminent ending of the season for me. This shifted to thinking about work I had ahead of me, wondered about people, life and my personal challenges.  I felt the familiar anxiety that I deal with on a daily basis building up. Suddenly, I am not paying attention to my fishing as I like to while lost in the distraction of my mind  my cast sticks my fly into a tree.

I pulled my rod in and tried to wiggle the line free. That didn't work so I decided to pull the line and risk the break.  The line and fly finally sprang free from the branch, but not without getting itself into a rat’s nest of a knot.  Still holding in my expletives, I could see this was a nasty one.  I set my rod under my armpit and took a look at the mess.  All I could do was sit there by the water’s edge and take a deep sigh.

The furled line I use gets a lot of comments from others because it is rainbow colored. It is my own creation of sorts. A line I stumbled on at a garage sale that turned out to work really well for tenkara. The line variegates through the colors of the rainbow again and again in about one foot color sections.   It is very visible in most lighting conditions and casts as well as most of the other furled lines I have tried. At this point though, my rainbow line was in garbled heap.  

I have considered knots as an analogy before. We can see the similarity of the way a knot binds on itself the same way that all of the things in our lives can kind of bind on each other. I have pondered before that knots are best carefully untangled by pulling outward from the mess instead of pulling the bindings tighter. You must slow down and decide carefully what you are going to untangle first. If you pull too hard on one part of a knot, you cinch down tighter on another part. Knots come undone when we slowly pull them apart at the easiest points first. Often times this makes the difficult parts easier to untangle. Life can be like that too.

The knots in our lives seem to happen when the things in our lives bind up too much on each other. The demands of life sometimes pull too hard on every part of us. Our fears, obligations, relationships, hopes, ideas, challenges, projects and desires start to wrap around each other.  We see how our lives get tangled with these different concerns and thoughts that we have.  We find our life line spinning out of control and balling itself up.

One advantage my rainbow line has is that you can tell the different parts of the line from each other.  Single toned lines get into knots and it is difficult if not impossible to see what part is attached to what other part of the knot.  With the rainbow line I could see that certain parts of the mess were related and more easily untangled. These clues of color actually make the knot more understandable. You can see each color in relationship to the other parts of the mess.

If only the knots of our lives could be as easy to decipher. To this I suppose we could try.  If our fears could be one color, our hopes another and our relationships, troubles and cares each have their own color, then we could see that knot as less daunting and stressful. We could pull apart the colors and let them untangle from the places that they were binding on and allow us to untangle faster. Perhaps they would open up solutions to other entanglements?

The lesson I experienced goes a little deeper still. Even figuring in the color clues, some knots are just too tight to undo. What we have to sometime do is separate the tangle as best we can then analyze what can be salvaged and what can be sacrificed.

As I looked at my line I was able to see that in pulling apart and decoding the colors I had inadvertently pulled a knot that was not going to come apart. Looking at what remained I decided to not spend 15-30 minutes of my fishing time trying to save the line.  We have to make the decision sometimes to just cut the knot out and try to fix what remains.  I took out my nippers and cut the free ends of the tight knot and was able to find my line now in two pieces with a very small section where the problem had been.  A simple splice and the line was still usable. Sure, it had a splice point, but it was functional and was a reminder of the struggle.

When we try to undo those tangled lines in our lives sometimes we find that there are knots that we just can’t undo. We need to learn when to take and spend time working on them and when to just cut those impossible issues away and splice the good parts together again. The chaotic knot goes away and is replaced by one that is good enough to hold things together. It is in some ways a stronger knot that will not interfere too much with the function of the line. The splice becomes a reminder of the struggle we faced and got past and we find ourselves back on the stream…casting again.

Recently at the Tenkara Summit 2018 Yvon Chouinard made a statement that has been wearing on me heavily. It wears on me heavily because I am sure that I am guilty of it. I am guilty of keeping fish out of water too long. 

Yvon basically stated that if you keep a fish out of water for more than 20 seconds that you have reduced the trout's ability to survive by 80%. I am going to take Yvon at his word on this. I will also keep looking for the scientific studies to support his claim.  I have read that you can keep a fish out longer but why don't we just all consider 20 seconds as being too long?

We must learn to be gentle
As someone who catches and releases his fish 98% percent of the time I started to think back to times that I am sure that I stressed a fish too much. I know early on I probably man handled the fish I caught. Learning to be gentle is very important step we must practice and teach younger fishermen. We have all probably stressed at least one fish out beyond levels of good conscience.  I realize that I may be preaching to the choir on this however it has taken me a long time to really grasp the reality of the importance of doing catch and release correctly. A slippery fish can accidentally be squeezed in our haste.

Fish need us to be mindful.
Since the Summit I have taken to really paying attention to this. I have become VERY mindful of the time I am exposing a fish to air. I am also being much more conscious about how long I play a fish and how I hold a fish. A few people and articles suggested that we hold our own breath while the fish is out of the water and consider this too. I don't know about you but I would rather focus on getting the fly out of the fish's mouth than try to have a game of see how long I can hold my breath.

Changing the definition of "Caught".
Maybe we need to look at how we define a "catch". This year I decided to adopt the philosophy of my friend Mark Cole. He and his wife Judy are just the greatest fishing couple you will ever meet. Mark has decided for himself that if a fish takes your fly and then shakes free it is as good as getting a fish to hand. This is not to say that he doesn't get fish to hand himself. Another friend has a 3 second rule that he uses. If you play a fish for 3 seconds it is as good as caught. We can perhaps stop being so stringent in our definition of success in fishing and remember that we fish to be outdoors and to connect with nature in a very unique way.

How important is that photo?
Catch and release folks love to get a quick shot of themselves and the fish. I used to take a lot of fish pictures but have since cut back to one or two fish at the most on any given day on the stream. I realized that it was partially my own ego I was feeding with the photos. Showing off on facebook is a poor reason to collect photos of fish. Maybe we should look at just being with ourselves in those moments. The experience of catching a good fish can never be captured in a single photo.  That moment is yours. You should decide how badly you need to share proof. Best suggested way to get a photo is to not be the one who has to take it. If you have a fishing buddy there, let them take a quick shot for you if it is not too much trouble and they are ready.

Being prepared for the catch is everything.
Knowing what you are going to do once you bring the fish in is important. Premeditate this and have your tools at the ready. Maybe the first step is as we bring a fish near the shore or near to us that we let the fish just swim near us and rest.  We can then decide what to do next. Get your net only after the fish is close enough to you to catch in the net. There is much to be said about nets and the potential damage they do at another time). They are still the most acceptable way to figuratively "land" a fish. I cringe now at early pictures I have taken of fish sucking air while sitting on the bank in blades of grass. There is no need to put a fish on the land unless you have resigned yourself to keep it for consumption.

Try to keep the fish in the water until you can no longer get the fly out.
If you get the fish into a net there is little reason to take it out and handle it. There is also little reason to take the fish and net out of the water. You can remove the fly while the fish is still in the net and submerged. Often I have had a fly release itself in the net.  If you don't get the fly out of the fish's mouth easily on the first attempt keep the fish in your net. Let the net just float in water and act like a little aquarium. Get out your hemostat or needle nose pliers and take the fish out of the water just far enough to get to it's mouth and throat. Hopefully you have already stopped using barbed hooks for your flies and the removal of the fly from the throat will happen very fast.

When a fish "deep throats" your fly.
Sometimes a fish just hits a fly and starts to swallow it faster than they can realize it is not a real bug. When this happens you will have to make a judgement call. If you can't get the fly out quickly enough you may just have to leave it in there and cut the line. The second choice is to sacrifice the fish. Consider sacrificing the fish only if it is appropriate. Don't waste the fish for nothing. Eat it yourself or give it to someone you know who likes trout. My mother in law will take any fish you have to sacrifice. This situation may be the dark side of fishing but if you see bleeding it is a good sign that the fish cannot be saved. When you have dedicated yourself to catch and release fishing this may be a wake up call to slow down and give this all more thought. Maybe to compensate for every fish you have to sacrifice you can decide to make a charitable donation to Trout Unlimited or your favorite wildlife fund.

This all comes down to is mindfulness and having the best practice established for how you are going to treat the fish you catch. For those of us who have chosen to practice catch and release as a way to assure that there are fish to catch tomorrow it is important to fulfill that reasoning with good fish release techniques otherwise we might as well keep every fish we catch anyhow. I look forward to insights from my readers in the comments and I will update this post with some studies when I can get them to support some of the claims here in this post.

The leaves are starting to turn and the weather has turned cold on cue. We likely have a few more sunny days left before I decide to pack my gear away for the season. I think this is the last year for this latest pair of waders. Sure, Colorado has fishing year round, however I decided last year to be a man who observes the seasons and gives the fish a little winter break. There are plenty of memories and plenty of things to do over the winter months. My shop has a heater and I have a lot of wood I can turn.

As I look back on my fishing season though I can smile at the great memories of time on the stream. I caught a lot of fish this year and along the way made some good new friends too. My spools hit the market and I got to see them going to owners who appreciated them and the time that I put into them. 

Every year has a it's challenges. While I didn't get to go on one trip that I was looking forward to I was able to take others that make up for that ten times over. I prefer to focus on the positives. Some of the milestone moments were turning 50 years old, fishing in South Dakota with my brother of another mother and having one of the single most productive days on the water with 40 fish caught in just 3 hours.

I look forward to the winter despite not wanting to fish very much during cold weather. I can focus on my writing, developing new products and of course tying up good supply of flies for next April. I still have all the makings for brewing my own sake' and today I decided that I was going to try to make my own horse hair leader.

The Tenkara Summit 2017 was very inspiring for me this year. I had fun, sold some spools, connected with old friends, made new ones and got to experience Yvon Chouinard give an moving and funny presentation that literally changed my outlook on the industry, fish hatcheries, dams and handling fish. I got to perform again at the summit and it is always nice to share my other passion with my tenkara brothers and sisters. The second day of the summit I also got to fish Rocky Mountain National Park and was able to land a few brownies too.

I won't rush the winter but I will sidle up to it. Living a well rounded life is about setting things aside from time to time to let them rest. I have lots of things to write about and I am looking at adding some fun blog posts through the winter.

Finally we started a Colorado Tenkara Club for residents of Colorado last year and it is time to put some time into that project too. It will be good to have everyone meet up again to tell their stories about the season and to make plans for 2018.

Today I want to talk about "The Essentials". I took a look at what I thought was important to take and what was not so important to bring along. Sure there are luxury items and my thoughts here are only a suggestion. Your experiences and needs may differ from mine so you might take more or less than I do.

I enjoy the freedom of being able to move quickly from hole to hole. As a result of that I have found that the less I have to carry the better I can maneuver through the brush, around the trail and to the next hole.  One of the major advantages tenkara has over the traditional Western style fly fishing is the reduction of gear. In my most stripped down form I can carry everything in my hands, pockets and on my body. It shouldn't take you 10 minutes to get out  to the stream because you had to dress up, rig up and make sure that everybody knows you are there to fish.

We’ve all heard it. “Tenkara is just a rod, a line and a fly”. …Yeah …yeah…yeah. This is true but does not apply to the “extras”. I strive to only take what I need that day on the trail I am taking or for that pull off I am stopping at. Beyond the rod, line and fly there are a few things that you will certainly need to have worked out.

I am always looking for ways to life hack or even multipurpose things. Utility is king in keeping things simple. If you have a tool that will do more than one job you save yourself from a redundancy of carrying two things. The main things I need to do on the stream are to cut lines, store flies, spool my line, land a fish safely and finally, have something to remove a deep set hook. Most everything else can just stay kept in your vehicle unless you have indication that you will need it. I leave a lot of items in my vehicle rather than take them with me.

All I really need are good pockets and most fishing shirts offer a good selection of pockets. If you are like me you also really like cargo pants and shorts.  Managing your pockets is a skill in itself. Practicing putting things back in the same pocket every time will save you time and sanity.

Here are my "Essentials" and thoughts...

• The "Mostly Optional" But "Handy" Sling Pack . 
  I take my sling pack along primarily for food, water, a raincoat and to keep my wallet keys and license. The size of sling pack you use is up to you. I am currently testing out different sized sling packs to see how low profile I can go without giving up the efficiency and utility that they can offer. Your needs may be greater or less than other’s needs for comfort. If you are going to be stepping into the terrain and trails away from your vehicle a sling pack can be a nice way to carry a controlled amount of gear with you and help you manage your pocket space.
  
  
• "One... and ONLY One" Rod
  As recently as last Monday I did what I usually do and carried my spare rod with me into the brush. Unfortunately, it fell out of my sling pack somewhere in the deep brush and despite backtracking as best as I could, it remains lost.  This one event has made me think about the idea of carrying a back up rod with me.
  I can alleviate the need for a second rod by making sure that the rod I am using is in good working order. It also motivates me to be more careful with the main rod.  Just keep your spare rod in your car unless the bother of going back to your car is going to mean the end of your day. Wouldn't it be just as smart to just have a spare top three sections of your rod anyhow? These segments take up less room if you do decide to carry them with you and should you lose them it is a lot cheaper than losing a whole rod... Yeah, I'm still moping about the lost rod.
  
  
• Lines, Leaders and Tippet
  Which ever main line you use, level or furled, be sure to have some extra with you. Have at least enough back up for a second rigging should you need it. Ever go to rig up and pull off some tippet and are surprised to find you only have a foot left on the spool? Yikes! Lines and tippet are light and take up very little space. There is no reason not to just have an extra supply of each with you.  As insurance I also always keep an extra spool of tippet in my glove compartment.
  
  
• Flies, Flybox, Better Still ...a "TenkaraPath Flybox Spool"
  I don’t like to carry a large box or multiple boxes of flies out with me. Boxes can be bulky and nobody needs to carry 1000 flies out with them for "just in case"  This year I am doing the “one fly” approach. It has treated me very well even in the middle of a colossal mayfly hatch.  I keep a "main supply tin" of flies in my car and reload my "stream supply" as needed. Though the ingenuity of consolidation I created the TenkaraPath flybox spool. The spool holds my tippet, line and acts as a fly box too. It has eight chambers that will each hold two flies securely with rare-earth magnets. I can carry 16 flies with me. The Flybox spool fits neatly in my breast pocket when I am fishing. Otherwise it is used as a traditional line spool and slipped over the collapsed rod. 
  
  
• Streamside Hardware
  These items of hardware are your nippers for trimming your line and a set of long nosed pliers or forceps for removing hooks. It never hurts to carry a pocket knife, a whistle and perhaps a lighter too. All of these items still carry easily in your pant pockets. Your phone (aka your camera), keys and wallet can go into your sling pack. Sunglasses are imperative. These can be hung around your neck or just worn.
  
  
• Waders, Shoes, Hat and Sun Glasses
  Depending on the time of year and the conditions that you will want to have the option of waders and boots or shoes to get out into the water and muddy terrain. In the hotter months I will occasionally forgo wearing waders altogether and just wear a pair of boots or water shoes to fish in. It is nice on those hot days to just let your legs and feet fly free in the water. It is important to pick shoes that are meant to be submerged and that have a good grip on the rocks should you find yourself in swift water. Keeping your head covered with a hat is also a good idea. I wear glasses for reading need them to thread a fly. I continue to work on solving my eyeglass/sunglass dilemma. I will keep you posted on that.
  
  
• Landing Net, (Tamo)
  The less we touch fish the better. I like having a net to also help me get a fish to land. Be sure that you are using a net when you can to bring a fish in. Tenkara fishermen often use a special net called a “Tamo”. This net has a unique bend shape to it and is made usually from a single branch of a tree. They are aesthetically beautiful on their own and a literal lifesaver for fish. I made my own net and continue to play with making nets.
  
  
• Food and Water...But Mostly Water
  Having food is more of an option but water is a necessity. I love taking a break now and again and finding a granola bar or bag of M&M’s in the side pocket of my sling pack is always nice. It can give you a needed bit of energy. Put it in your pack and forget about it. Having water is probably the most important thing you can carry with you. I try to keep a gallon jug of purified water in the trunk of my car and I carry a water bottle in my pack. Recently I started carrying a personal filter straw and have used it to drink directly from the stream. These are relatively inexpensive and if you don’t want the weight of a water bottle they are a way to stay hydrated on the fly.
  
  
• FIRST AID KIT/BUG STUFF/SUN SCREEN
  It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I don’t go overboard on the first aid but as I have fallen on rocks, hooked my finger, scratched my face, and been bitten by mosquitoes, I have a small kit that carries at least a few band-aids, some bug repellent and a small container of sunscreen. These you can keep together in a small sized camera bag stored in your sling pack.
  
  

And that folks is how we “keep things simple”. You can certainly add to what you want to carry with you. There is always an exchange of stuff for weight or management. I think the main point is to plan for what you need without packing in stuff you really don’t. Recently I read a great blog called "Tenkara Tales" written by David West Beale of the United Kingdom.  I really liked what he shared in his blog that similarly covered this topic. Please see what he has to share about keeping things simple too.

Colorado weather seems to continually surprise me.  It is February and while you might expect it to be cold it has been unseasonably warm for about a few weeks.  Well, that is to say until today.  We went from 60's and 70's to snowing in a matter of just 24 hours. I'm not here to bore you with a forecast of the weather though. I just make this comment here to explain and set the scene for my last week here. 

Two days ago I saw a break in my busy schedule. I realized that I could take my kiddo to school and then have all morning and into the afternoon if I wanted to for a day of fishing.  I could squeeze a day or so more out of my fishing license and maybe even explore a new place or two that had been tipped to me.

On a tip from an acquaintance, in a passing conversation, I decided to head to some water that he suggested I check out. Now I won't name the waterway out of respect to him for sharing it with me but I will tell you make sure you get exact directions when you get information like this. You see I ended up at the wrong place. That in itself isn't horrible. In that foible I actually did find myself on a stretch of that water that I hadn't covered yet.

My adventures in "the wrong place" was a pretty futile effort in the long run for actually catching fish. The water was clear and seasonably skinny.  There were clearly pockets of fish-able water to be found. As I walked the mile or so downstream from the parking lot I tried to imagine what this place could provide in the spring. I tried to take mental notes of holes that would be good to visit another time. An optimist at heart, I was hopeful still for a little luck in finding a lazy brown hiding along a bank undercut. (BIG SIGH) Nope. Nothing. On now what amounts to a walk, I did see one other fisherman who felt compelled to tell me stories about 18" rainbows that he was pulling out of that stream in the early spring.

I worked my way back to my car and then headed north a bit from that parking area and found a pull off that I was new to me as well. There were other cars there but I presume they were all hikers in the area as I didn't see anyone on the water. I walked upstream and found places that I had driven by many times but never stopped at because they were, well... just too far down the hill and likely to have been fished out by the "harvesters". What I found was again thin skinny water without any signs of life. There was plenty of fishy looking water with aeration and deeper pools along with a clearly visible rocky bottom; my hopes were raised slightly. I had one fish rise to a cast. It was a small... let's say "half-strike"...and didn't take. Just a nibble, spit and dive. Well that was encouraging but the excitement of that wore off quickly.

The following Tuesday I was able to head back out. I dropped my son off at school, grabbed a doughnut and a cup of coffee and bolted for the waterway.  The weather again pretending to be spring.  I headed back up the hill on the same stretch of water but to a more familiar stop. I found a pull of or two and edged my way up stream repeatedly being disappointed at the lack of life in the water. There were pools that I fished that I can usually count on 80% of the time to find a fish hiding in. When I made my way to my chosen end stop I worked downstream again into waters that I seldom fished in the past just to learn the terrain and the turns of the stream. I will spare you the details. It was a bust. At this point I didn't know if I was frustrated or just disappointed to a whole new level. 

Don't you hate it when the title of a section kind of tells it all? Well this does that but I promise that I will come to my main point when it is all over. I checked in with the friend who gave me the original tip that inspired me to dust of my license and get out while the getting was good. Explained my non-adventure and was promptly told I was in the wrong place.

This time I got a very specific location thanks to our friends at Google maps.  I dropped my son off at school, skipped the doughnut and had a coffee with me from home. I parked and checked my Google location and was definitely at the right place. I will be honest. This is not the usual place I would have thought to look for fishing. On the map it seems a little suburban but it is a nice little stretch of water and I could see potential going into it. It was one of those places where you see everyone unloading bikes and walking their dogs. It was a little closer to the city than I like...a place that probably only a few fisherman would fish without at least a touch of spite stuck in their craw.

It was as I said before, a suburban area. You could see apartment complexes in the distance. It was wintered over and ugly. Not a leaf in a skeleton of trees and not a sign of green anywhere. But the sun was shining and I decided to go into this with an open mind yet realistic expectation that there would be little if any life.

What I found was exactly the kind of stream features that the friend had described. I could imagine the water with more cover of leafed our trees, growing grasses and raised waters. The pools were obvious and you got a sense of where the water levels had been at one time. The canopy was actually not bad for tenkara at all and even as I hopelessly went through the motions of casting to the pools and cascades of white bubbles I knew I could see myself back here again in just a few months.

I am a person of imagination and hope. While these three late-winter/pre-spring outings provided little in the way of fishing action. I did slow down long enough to think about the waters. From new found accidents along the way to new sections of old haunts and actual locations that a man swears are some of his best "go to waters". As the song goes..."there is a season". 

Dormant waters should be expected. Fish are subject to seasonal changes, water levels and predators. They do what they must to survive the winter season. This makes me wonder where they actually do go of course but at the same time, that is a secret that is perhaps best unknown. Well, I still want to understand it better. 

As I reflect on this and project the idea onto my own relationship with the season, I see that I need to perhaps have my own places that I escape away to during the winter. Places that I will be in solitude and remain unmolested by others. This gives the world I live in during the spring a little time to flow without me directly in it or struggling to survive in a less than optimal environment. Winter is a time for slumber and reflection. Certainly it is a time for planning and thinking about the future seasons ahead as well. Eat doughnuts, look at maps, tie flies etc.

Perhaps this whole blog post is really about me reminding myself that we need these slow, unproductive times for introspection. They can act as a comparison for us in the more productive and busy times. Maybe make us appreciate the more bountiful seasons. I wish that the rest of our society was perhaps more seasonally affected.
Arguably it probably is but is ignorant to its effects. It seems every January that we are supposed to be "out of the gates" rushing towards some goal. Well this guy is going to take a cue from the groundhog and slip back into my hole only coming out occasionally if the sun is shining. I won't be fooled by the false promise of early spring. When I do emerge though I will be ready and focused. See you in the spring. I'll bring the doughnuts.

I honestly believe we have fallen prey to the world of commercialism and have been sold a huge bill of goods. We are advertised lifestyles that are mere snapshots of opulence that we should supposedly be working towards living. We have been taught through our consumer culture that possessions equal freedom. Looking back at my own childhood I think about being on the poorer end of the scale compared to my friends. We weren't dirt poor but it seemed that the things that would have made me feel "normal" compared to others were always just out of reach.
I have been on that roller coaster of striving for that idealized image of what is a "successful life". The road was paved with false ideas and false promises of happiness.

Now that I am older I now see the things that mattered in my youth for what they were, trivial  consumerist thinking. With time and experience as my teacher I find myself drawn to the aesthetics of simplicity. To the value of time, quality and clarity.  I want life to quit being so complicated and full of clutter.

Over the last few years now I have been working to minimize my lifestyle.  The items that I had accumulated despite any actual need for them were both a virtual and literal weight on my life and psyche. Too often I had made the mistake of confusing the things I wanted for the things I needed. I see now that I like if ever stopped to ask the most important question.  Why did I need anything that I thought I wanted?

Tenkara really has been a great teacher for me. It has helped me see that I could have as much if not more enjoyment with less gear and less thought given. I learned that having more than I needed was a burden Most of the stuff I was carrying was not needed.  My fishing gear was actually taking up space that I could use better for things that would extend my day and make the whole experience better, easier and yes, more personally fulfilling.  Tenkara and its elements of simplicity have become a practice that has imprinted itself on me and that I try to live into now with other parts of my life.

I want to give a few thoughts for you to consider as well as a few questions for you to throw at yourself regarding the things you own and have been holding on to. I am not an expert yet at this.  I have been working for a few years now with leaps forward and slides backward to minimize my life and lifestyle.  It is not easy to purge things from your life. Minimalism isn't for everyone and I am not suggesting everyone dive deep into it. I know though that for me it has been a great thing. It has served my life. Maybe you will find a few things that will help you change the way you think about your stuff. Here are a few questions to start you off.

1. Think about the things you own and now ask how do I feel about getting rid of these things?
I keep looking at my things and looking at how I am emotionally tied to them. These emotions keep us from getting rid of things. For me sometimes, objects seems to have an invisible tag tied onto them. The things we own should really serve a specific and desired need. They should serve us as more than just items we can say we own. Often times they feel like they own us. By exploring our emotions surrounding items and being honest with ourselves we can examine why we are keeping things and better still, should we be?

2. If your house was on fire what would be the 5 things you would grab to save?
Let's pretend you have only 1 minute to grab those 5 things... (For the record, your family and pets are safe and not part of this list. We are talking about "things") You might be surprised at what things you do grab. Why those 5 things and not others? Most things can be replaced of course. What things we value most can give us a lot of insights into ourselves and our values.

3. How many places do you have that you put stuff to keep..."Just in case?"
I can easily bet that if you are reading this you have a junk drawer full of "tid-bits", a shed full of duplicate tools, a medicine cabinet with expired pills,a garage or storage unit with boxes of things you forgot existed, or maybe a box (or is it boxes?) of fly tying materials you will never use in a single lifetime. We keep a lot of stuff "just in case you need them".  It would take you a lot longer than 20 minutes in some cases to find that one thing you are looking for. The reality is that if we really need something it can probably be gotten new in less than 20 minutes and replaced for less than $20. So what is the real benefit to keeping it?

4. What items are you keeping for no other reason than the memories associated with them?
When an item reminds us of a happy time or a person in our lives, that should and can be a good thing. But if we are really honest some of those things don't really recreate that moment and we really don't need that item to remember that event or person in our lives.  Nostalgic items come in all shapes and sizes. From old concert ticket stubs to ratty baseball hats, etc. Certainly some items can be cherished and kept. But if the nostalgia is the only reason you are keeping something then you might be just be holding on to an item as a way to hold on to the past. What I have found is that only a few items ever make it to my "keep for nostalgia" box. Yes, a small cigar box can hold a great treasure that won't take up too much room.

5. When you buy things do you buy in bulk?
A short while back I found realized I owned more fly tying materials than I would ever need. More thread spools, feathers, dubbing material, hooks and even duplicate fly tying tools. These things all accumulated because frankly they were sold in large quantities.  Add to that I wanted to have a large variety of materials to tie with. So I decided to take out just what I would use and to put the rest in a box. The box was there and if I needed something I could go to the box and get it.  Truth be told, I never opened the box. After a year I made the leap and  was able to donate my gear to a friend's son who was taking up fly tying. The biggest reward was that my fly tying bench became much easier to use. Quite often when we buy things we are purchasing them because we don't want to be without.
 
6. Have you told yourself that having variety makes you more creative, saves you time or even money?
Why do you feel this way and is that really the truth? I have found that having fewer choices is the best way to find true creativity and focus in my life. Whenever I have too many choices it becomes much harder to make a choice. Things become more difficult to store and manage. Having too many choices in front of us can actually be a block in our progress and in our creativity. Remember that it is necessity that is the mother of invention not variety.

Letting go of things we don't use or need is actually a very bold and brave action to take. Physically speaking, it can really open up our storage spaces, clear our cluttered shelves, closets and garages. Practically speaking it can open our lives up to great things too.  Things like more time, more money or mental health.  We see very quickly that our lives are not measured by the things we own. Our lives are measured by the experiences we have and the people in our lives. There are many benefits to working towards a minimalist lifestyle. You cannot expect though to just jump into these changes. You have to take intentional steps. You have to look at items you own and decide what importance they have in your life.  How do they enrich your life and when was the last time you used that item? I am taking steps currently to see that the things in my life are things that I have intentionally said yes to owning. The process is incredibly therapeutic and humbling.  There is a freedom that comes with letting "things" go. There is absolutely an art to it. A process that changes your outlook and perspective.

1. Find one room in your house. Perhaps a very personal room to you that has mostly if not all of just your things in it.  Examine what is in this room. What belongs there? What is just being stored there? What things are cluttering the space?

2. Get yourself 4 boxes. One box is for stuff you want to donate, one is for stuff you need to move to another place in your home, one is a small box marked "just in case" and the last one is just a garbage.

3. Try to fill each of the boxes. Save the "just in case box" for items you think you might need later and aren't ready to get rid of.

4. Make decisions quickly and without second guessing yourself.

5. Remove the boxes from the room.  Put the stuff away that needed to be in a different location. Put the garbage into the waste bin outside, take the charity donation away. Put the sealed up, "Just in case box" into a closet, under your bed or if need be on a shelf in your garage. Mark the box with a date of up to 6 months. Whatever you haven't removed from the box after that date should be tossed or donated.

6. Now come back to the recently cleared room space and begin to tidy and reorganize what you have left.

7. Once you have done these steps you can then appreciate your new found space and the feeling it gives you. Think about the things you kept and why you kept them.

8. Wait a day or so and then find your next space or room to tackle.

Some final words
Letting go of stuff feels good, clears up your space from clutter and can be a psychological weight lifted off of your shoulders. Letting go with intent makes room in your life for easier living and has a holistic effect on your overall thinking.  The real trick is to establish a new way of thinking about stuff. Establish a new mindset, think differently about the things you purchase and do your best not to over-consume. Sure things will find their way into your life again. As items do come into your possession just ask your self "do I really need this?" "Do I find value enough in this thing to keep it?" I wish you the best in your process of downsizing, minimizing your possessions and understanding your relationship to your stuff.