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 It was just one of those things. It didn’t really
mean Marvin Pincus had lost his mind. Consider this yourself for a
minute. Marvin had opened the mail that morning and in it was the
Fenwick glass fly rod he’d ordered. Oh, it was used, of course. The
new ones are graphite. But there’s a feel to a fibreglas Fenwick
that only a man dedicated to a life of using dry flies can
appreciate.
The weather was gorgeous. The fish were biting on Lewis Creek. But
there was a hitch. Marvin had broken his ankle the previous week and
was temporarily in a wheelchair. It was his right ankle, so he
couldn’t drive down to the creek. And there, in his hands, was the
Fenwick. He put it together, attached a reel and some four-weight
line and set it on the couch and looked at it.
Marjorie was off visiting her sister, so she couldn’t help him. But
there’s a pull, an irresistible draw to a fly rod. He had to cast
it.
Now.
It took Marvin about 20 minutes to negotiate the front steps with
that wheelchair and the Fenwick. Oh, he could’ve called a friend to
help him, but how could he possibly explain why?
Finally, he negotiated the sidewalk and then the edge of the street
itself. There were no cars coming this early afternoon.
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Up came the Fenwick. A few
swishes in the air told Marvin he’d done the right thing in ordering
the rod. So he ran out some line and began casting. About halfway
across the street was a large mulberry leaf. He did a double haul on
the line and sent the fly toward the leaf. It took several tries
before he hit it, but when he made that cast, you could’ve sold
tickets to it. His fly came to rest about three feet above the leaf
and then fluttered gently down onto its target. Marvin’s smile said
it all.
Then the school bus came around the corner full of kids heading
home, and Marvin realized he was casting a fly rod from a wheelchair
onto dry pavement.
“Hi Mr. Pincus!” yelled one of the kids. “Catch anything?”
“A little slow today, Billy,” he yelled back.
“Isn’t it hard to catch fish without water?” Billy yelled.
“It’s okay, son,” Marvin said with a grin. “I’m using a dry fly!”
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
Brought to you
by www.purefishing.com, keeping alive and fresh the Fenwick quality
to this day.
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