Spring has given us a bit of a head fake here on the plains. I was tempted to daydream of long summer days on the Snake River. A sudden change in the wind's direction brought me back to the current, windy, cold days. Summer remains a few months away here on the plains, and even more distant in the Tetons.
My thoughts drifted back to the many lessons fly-fishing has taught me. Many of those insights are shared here. Maddie and Art among the instructors. The lessons run the gamut, from fly selection to presentation. The starting point is generally the selection of the fly. Dry flies for the mid-summer top water eat. Nymphs for the early season bite. Streamers for the big fish in the deep holes.
Ironically, one of the holes in my angling game was streamers. The irony, everyone likes to catch the big fish, me included. So, why would I neglect this area of my skills? What I had learned worked most of the time. There was little need to evolve when I was having success. My experience was predominantly in the summer and early fall. This is when the classic topwater or dry-fly eats happen. The nymph in my mind was an addition to get to a second level in the water column. This is where 80% of the food is consumed by the native Cutthroat trout. Below the surface of the river.
Streamers are flies designed to imitate other fish and larger food in the water, like leeches and even mice! They are a bigger meal for the trout. Bigger meal, bigger fish. The challenge is learning technique. This took more patience than I could muster. So, I just used the technique I knew, because I had been successful in the past.
Last autumn, I was determined to learn the streamer game. I was with a friend, one of the usual suspects, when I decided to commit for the day. Streamers only for that day. It was slow anyway, as winter was approaching. Let’s give it a go!
The first casts were on target, no results. Then, less than an hour into the experience, bam! A bite, I missed the hookset. I learned something; the bite was more subtle than I thought. Again, cast into the deep hole I know as the corner pocket. Bam! This time, less subtle, and the strip set was perfect. A huge Cutthroat, close to 20 inches. Wow! He was almost to the gravel bar I was standing on, and he thrashed his head to the north and broke my line. Augh!!
The next cast, bam! Another big fish, hookset good, caught and landed. I was screaming I was so excited. My friend looked at me curiously? I just figured out using streamers. This opens another section of the water column, where the big fish eat.
How does this relate to the market? The US is one of the worst-performing markets of developed countries year-to-date. Goldman Sachs issued a report yesterday that estimates that 55% of the cost of the tariffs was passed through to US consumers, while 22% falls on US businesses. That is $100 Billion, real money!
We are using the wrong fly. It isn’t working. Instead of restricting trade, why not feed it the right fly? Instead of punching trading partners in the face, why not develop these relationships?
…it all reminds me of an old saying, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Let’s try getting along, might catch a nice fish.
Enjoy the day…r2