It’s finally Springtime here in the Northeast and this man’s fancy has turned to thoughts of fishing and of reconnecting with the rivers I have known since my youth.
My father was an avid outdoors man who spent most of his free time in nature – fishing during the Spring and Summer months; trapping muskrat, mink, raccoon, otter, beaver and fisher cat during the Fall; ice fishing during the long winter months.
Being the youngest of my father’s four sons, I knew that if I wanted to spend any time with the man I idolized, I would have to accompany him during his many woodland adventures. As I walked beside my father he would scan the forest floor and waterways for animal signs and tell me what he saw there – stories that made the forest come alive in my imagination .
My father’s favorite outdoor activity was fishing rivers for trout and it quickly became my favorite activity as well. Trout fishing was appealing to us because it required skill to entice the notoriously fussy fish to bite and once hooked trout put up a good fight and are a challenge to land – especially when you are using light tackle and you have to battle not only the fish and the river current, but also any submerged debris that lies unseen under the surface. On many days, we lost more trout than we landed.
My father introduced me to the sport gradually, letting me come along with him and two of my older brothers starting when I was ten years old. Over time he taught me how to tie knots, how to cast a spin rod and a fly rod, how to string live bait and how to fish with lures and flies.
The most important thing he taught me was how to read a river, to recognize the places in the river where trout are most likely to lie in wait – places like deep undercut banks, fallen trees, natural whirlpools behind submerged rocks and deep holes just behind shallow fast moving water.
For each of these river features he would explain the best way to present the bait so that it would appear most natural to the fish. He would tell me memorable stories from years past about the big fish he had caught at the spots where we were fishing. He would point out where to cast in the river for the best result and when I made a cast that met with his approval his eyes would sparkle and he would say; “That a boy – you should get a bite there!“.
When we waded a stream together, my father always let me fish the best spots and when we fished the river from a canoe he would insist that I take the front seat because it gave him more joy to see me catch a fish than it did to catch one himself.
And that is how I was introduced and grew to love all the best trout fishing rivers within a 3 hour drive of my home. The rivers Green, North, Swift, Millers, Ware, Tully, Deerfield, Cold, Ashuelot, Souhegan, Contoocook, Nissitisit, Squannacook, Lawrence and Priest.
I fished them with my father for 45 years, and I fish them now mostly alone – except for the strong presence of my Dad, whose spirit I still feel guiding me whenever I am fishing.
There is something almost magical about a river. If you think about it, a river is a moving, living part of the very earth itself and each river is endowed with its own personality. Some are fast and shallow, some are deep and slow, some meander aimlessly while others are direct and powerful.
Rivers are my happy place, a refuge from the demands of life and a humble reminder to me that life and time flows on despite all the small things we worry about and think are so important. Novelist and poet Jim Harrison recognized the restorative power of moving water, writing “You can’t be unhappy in the middle of a big beautiful river“.
Other visionaries and artists throughout the ages have also sung the praises of rivers.
Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.
A.A. Milne, Author of Winnie the Pooh
The river knows the way to the sea: Without a pilot it runs and falls, blessing all lands with its charity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that only the present exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.
Herman Hesse, excerpt from Siddhartha
Each Spring when I come to revisit my favorite rivers, I return to my youth, smitten again by the beauty of the landscape and overwhelmed with remembrances of the happy memories experienced in years past. It is like the sentiment expressed in the Van Morrison song lyric: “Every time I see a river, feels like I’m back in love again“
Like people, the character of a river changes continually and each year I marvel how time and circumstances have changed these lifelong friends – and how they have changed me as well. The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus was right when he observed that “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man“.
A river is a river, always there, and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. It’s always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes too. It widens and deepens as it relentlessly erodes its way through the land.
Maybe I am fascinated by rivers because they are a good metaphor for life and people in the following ways:
- The life-giving waters of a river emanate from the same source and they travel towards the same end. Our life too is sparked by a Creator, to which we will return at the end of our journey.
- The waters of a river flow continually, but the water is always different – constantly being renewed. We too must undertake productive pursuits with our life energy to avoid unhealthy stagnation.
- Rivers have segments that can be easily characterized; slow and straight, fast raging rapids, tranquil meandering with little visible movement, gurgling multi-speed currents. People, likewise experience many different segments in their day to day living. Sometimes we walk steadily straight ahead confident in our path, sometimes our life accelerates furiously as we try to hang on, sometimes the way forward sparkles in the clear brilliant sunshine, other times the path forward is shrouded by fog and unexpected turns.
As our river of life continues on to its final destination, I offer up this river prayer for a smooth journey and a safe return to our place of origin:
Heavenly Father… Do not allow our troubles to overflow and overwhelm our life. When our life is overflowing give us the capacity to widen, deepen and expand. When there is time of drought, do not allow us to stagnate and become like an arid riverbed. Give us the courage to overcome people who would try to dam our spirits or channel us so that we only flow where they want. Bless our path so that we flow freely through life following a course that leads us back to you… Amen.
Words to Live By... 
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