Craig Stevens didn”™t have a clue the first time he stepped into a stream to do some fly-fishing.
He was a professional tree-snagger until he got his technique down pat. He even caught a pigeon once that became ensnared in a tangle of line. It”™s not often you see a man with a fishing pole trying to reel in something fluttering above his head. (Note to PETA members: the pigeon survived.)
Stevens was in his 20s when his stepfather presented him with an antique Orvis bamboo rod. Stevens was a longtime fisherman, having spent his youth divided between conventional fishing and his other love, BMX bike racing. Growing up in Hamden, north of New Haven, he and his cousin Chris would ride their bikes down to the reservoir. They would be like a modern Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn lashing truck-tire inner tubes together and throwing a piece of plywood on top for a deck. They”™d pick up their “throwaway” fishing gear that they had hidden in the woods, hop aboard their makeshift vessel and then tie it under a bridge. Their location under the bridge and the expendable gear was necessary because fishing wasn”™t allowed in the state reservoirs and the boys needed to keep out of sight of the patrolling DEP inspectors. If you got caught, Stevens said, the officer would take away your fishing poles, lures and what have you.
After high school, Stevens worked in construction and then worked for Brody Printing Co. in Bridgeport “in every department.” He would practice casting and the back-and-forth motion associated with fly-fishing during his lunch hour. He had no fluid motion; it was mostly “hack and slash.”
“Some old-timers took mercy on me and helped me get the basics down.”
Stevens left the printing company and now commutes from his home in Madison to Westport. He is the director of business development at VGS Creative, an advertising agency.
He continues his bike riding ”“ he teaches spinning classes ”“ and his fly-fishing has come a long way since he first waded into a stream. A few years back he and his stepfather, Paul, a “fly-fishing guru,” started wading into streams together. They have taken several trips to Roscoe, in Sullivan County, N.Y., better known as Trout Town U.S.A. Stevens says that the planets are in alignment when his stepdad wades into a stream; he catches twice as many fish as anyone else. Even the paid fishing guides come over and try to pry his secrets from him. Stevens says that his stepdad is often up until 4 a.m. of the morning of the fishing trip tying flies that range in size from large to so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to see their hooks.
There”™s nothing easy about fly-fishing. Once you have the line behaving the way it should whether by coaxing it back and forth with your arm or “rolling” the pole, you still have to deal with “the approach.”
Since fish face upstream, a fisherman must enter downstream and move slowly in behind them. When the water is warm, Stevens says, the fish are easy to spot because “you see rings on the water where they”™re rising.” And you also can”™t cast your line directly over them because they”™ll swim away. And you also have to deal with nature”™s other fishers ”“ birds.
Stevens had a large trout in view one time that he was moving in on. Unfortunately, a large bird also had his eye on the same fish. The bird dive-bombed into the water, wrestled with the trout, came out with it in its beak and plopped it on a nearby bank to enjoy its meal.
And sometimes it”™s nature”™s dumber members ”“ man ”“ who can wreck a special moment. Stevens was under a bridge near a group of trout when he heard voices above. The conversation was straight out of the 1960”™s stop-action animation show “Davey and Goliath.”
Mimicking the slow, almost dim-witted voice of Goliath the dog, Stevens related the short, one-sided and unfortunate conversation that went something like:
“Hey, Davey, I can see the fish. They”™re over there.”
The speaker clambers down along the bank.
“Yeah, there”™s a lot of ”™em.”
The man makes noise and knocks debris into the water.
“Uh-oh, they swam away.”
It”™s a good thing fly-fishermen don”™t carry weapons in their waders.
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