Eat - Sleep - Fly Fish

A copy of a card I made for my Dad.

Fish

Finally, the dinner one might eat after a day on the water in a boat with a sombrero on after a nap under a palm tree, or not it is just a picture of a fish to hang on your wall.

Palm Tree

This is the tree one might choose to take a nap under after a day on the boat or in the water.

Sombrero

The hat one might need to be outside on a boat all day.

Boat

Finished a long time ago and yet I am still drawn to the innocence and joy of being on the water behind this piece. I will show the other 4 of this series today. I am considering putting these up for sale at the co-op gallery soon.

Wading Along

Another step in successful fly fishing is to move either up stream or down stream between casts. It's called "covering the pool." On occasion, one might also move forward of backward from the bank of the river - I had to do this often due to my casts not being long enough to reach the other bank. Obviously, a fisherman is not going to stand in one place for several hours at a time - funny how this little detail was not obvious to me at all until I actually saw how much water I would be fishing in Iceland. So, the waders are called waders because one wades along the river to fish and hopefully experience the joy of a "tight line."

Man Fishing

Well, having tried to capture the line in the air and failing, I moved on to catching the man standing in water with a stick - sorry, rod. This is the part were typically in fly fishing the fisherman strips the line. Yes, there are stripping jokes out on the water, but I digress. Stripping the line means that the line is being pulled in one tug at a time at a predetermined speed and a chosen amount of line at a time. The speed and line length to strip-in is dependent on the water speed, wind speed and direction, and size of the fly as far as I can tell.

Left side back cast

When it gets really windy a fly fisherman will cast from their opposite side (usually left). A great deal more effort goes into this cast. The reason for the change is to avoid a "collapsed" line or worse a hook in the back of your head. Actually a true fisherman would say the collapsed line is worse than the hook in the head. Either way, watching a strong cast from the non-dominant side is remarkably beautiful.

Guide

When fishing the HOFSA in Iceland it is common to have a guide climb steep banks over pools of water and search the water for salmon. They have a trained eye and can spot the fish underwater. It was not until my 7th day on the river that I could sight an underwater fish. Then, the fisherman actually casts to the sighted fish. Cheating? No, not in a place were one fishes almost 4 miles of big water for 11 hours in one day. The best fishermen catch 4 - 7 fish a day. Like my father says: "It's called fishing, not catching!"

Casting

Well, try as I will - and I tried many times. I could not fully capture fly casting on a 9 x 6 inch sketch pad. The rods are 9 feet long the line in the air is anywhere from 30 feet to 65 feet, sometimes longer. Clearly a man 6 feet tall or less would be a lot tinier than what I captured. In addition, the line speed is such that one can really only see a tiny portion of the path at a time and the fisherman is constantly moving. A beautiful sport to watch if you have countless numbers of hours ahead of you.

Wildflowers

I had seen pictures of Iceland Wildflowers before my trip. What amazed me is how tiny the flowers actually are. I was literally laying on the ground to draw them. Wonderfully at this level I could also see the bumble bees hard at work.

Iceland First Impression

I was in Iceland a short 5 hours and I was already suited up in waders and fly fishing with my father. Fortunately, we had a full-time guide that first evening so I was able to take out my sketch pad for a brief moment - remember the focus was fishing not drawing! This house that I captured was bigger than most homes in Napa California but, the vast land of Iceland made it appear to be a doll house. This sketch was done for the banks of Beat 7, Hofsa.

Dad on a cold Afternoon in Iceland

My Dad is on the left Jon is on the right. The water in Iceland is much bigger my focus was on capturing the men concentrating on catching a Salmon. I chose black paper because the evening was overcast, cold and windy.