THIRTYARDS

On coastal waters flyfishing for bass

‘I had my existence. I was there.
Me in my place and the place in me.’

Seamus Heaney
Uncoding ALL LANDSCAPES

The timeless waves, bright, sifting, broken glass, Came dazzling around, into the rocks, Came glinting, sifting from the Americas. – S.Heaney
From the reef to the kelp forest

I thought the earth
remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, – M.Oliver
ACTIVELY PATIENT

It don’t do you no nevermind to tell nobody nothing. – T.McGuane
TIME INVESTED

A man is never lost at sea. – E.Hemingway
THE LONG REACH OF THE FLY

The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know. – E.Hemingway
With principles of least time

Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years,
Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe
Are brackish with the salt of human tears!
Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow
Claspest the limits of mortality! – PB.Shelley
WHERE WHEN

But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. – S.Beckett
From Autumn Transition

Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising. – R.Carver
Through to Summer Threshold

I know I’m a long way from greatness, but I am beginning to come at it in my own way. I can go through the basic motions pretty well, don’t rely quite as religiously on specific fly patterns as I once did, have worked out ways of compensating for some of my most egregious weaknesses and have come to count heavily on timing because it’s a hell of a lot easier to catch fish when the fish are biting. – J.Grierach

About

I believe that saltwater fly-fishing places us deep in the coastal heart of the natural locations we discover whilst pursuing the fish. Catching the fish on the fly is often about these places, where and when, but its also about much more; its about being immersed in the things we sense on the way, there and back. The good moments, the fun, the challenges we face, the learning, and the technique through… Read More