Feel the Vibration
The ultimate postman’s holiday,
a guide on a day off fishing the Madison River. You know what lives here. You
know what is watching your fly go by a certain rock. You almost feel him tug a
good second or two before your line goes tight and your rod bends. Then there
he is. Big, brown, and toothy…one quick chocolate flash of piscatorial
pleasure!
Bent almost double, if your rod were a musical instrument, it would sound like Phil Lesh’s
Bass guitar on Love Light. The pulsing, rhythmic sound of a Madison brown’s
strong pull. This is why you love streamers. This is why you love the Madison.
This is what you live for. You hate the cliché “The tug is the drug,†but,
dammit, it’s so descriptive of this moment! This euphoria. This Vibration!
As the brown gets close to the boat, your buddy stands up to net him, his voice almost
inaudible to you in your moment. The trout now landed, you hold the net,
keeping his head in the water as your oarsman slides the boat to the bank to
admire the fish.
He’s not the biggest you’ve caught, but, you vow that if you ever stop getting this
excited you’ll hang it all up and go get a real job with insurance and a
retirement plan. No, he’s not the biggest, but he is beautiful enough that if
you didn’t live another moment, he would be worthy of that last cast.
