Risk, by: Mark Usyk

Some people get all romantic about tying a fly and then catching a fish with it. Me? Nope. There's not much romanticism about tying a fly and then snagging it in a tree and losing it. It happens though. Whether it's a tree behind you or on the other side, or that submerged tree that you know you need to get the fly right into because that's where the fish are.

Tying flies for me is simply a means to the rest of it all. The walking, the searching, the casting, a fish now and then, it just starts with a fly, and, me being the creative type, I'd rather tie random crap to a hook than buy them. It sucks losing a fly in a tree, something I probably took ten minutes to tie gone in a second, but you move on. Tie another on. Be more careful on the next cast. 

This brings me to my first little bit of stream philosophy out of the mouth of my youngest son Carter. 

Yesterday we were fishing. At some point I told him to watch the trees on his backcast and he didn't miss a beat with his response. "Nope, it's like offensive driving. They can move for me. I need the space." 

I laughed. But then I realized, damn, he's on to something! He's willing to take the chance of a fly stuck in a tree if it ultimately gets him what he wants. He knows where he wants to land his cast, and he realizes there's risk, and he's taking it, because it's worth it. I watched him drift streamers right into root balls and under logs too. Because he's understanding that it's just a fly. No big deal. The big deal is that the risk just might pay off. 

"Nope, it's like offensive driving. They can move for me. I need the space." Actually that was his first stream philosophy to come out of his mouth. A little earlier, he'd picked up a bone laying on the rocky creek bank. I told him "That used to be a cow " and again without missing a beat he said "Yeah, well it isn't here anymore."

He's 16 years old. Fly fishing is teaching him stuff he doesn't even realize he's learning.