From Spey Casting to Typecasting

I was seriously hooked on fly fishing (pun intended) for steelhead at one point in my life. It all happened very quickly. I originally began fly fishing for trout using a rod like the type that most people picture in their minds when they think of fly-fishing. But within a year a coworker of mine had turned me on to fly-fishing for steelhead using a spey rod, which is quite a bit longer and requires both hands to cast. Spey casting originated in Scotland (on the River Spey). The use of a two-handed spey rod allows one to cast over greater distances than when using a shorter single-hand rod. This comes in handy on the big, wide rivers here in the Pacific Northwest where steelhead are typically found. If you are not familiar with steelhead there is plenty of information available elsewhere online.

Within a couple of years of beginning my fly-fishing adventure I would find myself fishing year-round. This included winter days when I fished until it was no longer possible due to the fishing line freezing up in the small guides of my spey rod. If someone were to have told me just a few years earlier that I would one day find myself in such a predicament, I surely would have told them that they were crazy. But I loved every minute of my fishing exploits with few exceptions. (The time when I got pitched out of my boat and into the river while attempting to navigate the rapids caused by the massive boulders underneath the waters surface comes to mind — again, in the middle of winter.) Another time someone broke into my truck to steel some of my gear while I was out on the river, but I wouldn’t call this a fishing incident per se.

The typewriter bug did not bite me quite so hard. Yet had someone told me five years ago that I would go on to own more than a dozen typewriters I don’ t doubt that I would have told them that they were out of their mind. Of course not only do I now own a bunch of these venerable writing machines, but I have been writing about them here on this blog for nearly four years. Not only have I been writing about them, but I have been typecasting since day one of this blog just like the sort of hardcore typewriter nut that I am. Sure, this does take longer but then so do most things associated with typewriters. Much as with fly-fishing, enjoyment is fully reached through the process involved.

Just as fly-fishing was never only about catching fish, my involvement with typewriters isn’t just about these machines. Back when I was fishing, I loved reading about it and talking about it with others. Every single trip to the fly shop was something that I looked forward to, whether I was buying a new rod or simply buying a few small materials for tying flies. And I loved watching videos of others fishing for steelhead. Particularly those videos made by a guy named Todd Moen.  I watched his video titled “Steelhead Dreams” so many times that I practically have it committed to memory all these years later.

The best part of fly-fishing for steelhead was when I found myself standing in the river with the sound of the water wrapping around my legs as the current carried it swiftly by. There in what was the heart of an incredible ecosystem surrounded by some of Mother Nature’s best work, often with bald eagles soaring overhead, the rest of the world just slipped away taking my problems with it. And while I tended to fish with my buddy Jade the majority of the time, it was essentially a solo endeavor for the most part.

The nature of spey casting is such that Jade and I had to give each other quite a wide berth when we were fishing. To talk to one another we would have needed to shout, so neither of us talked for most of the day. Fortunately this suited us both just fine. We had time to chat whenever we were in our boats floating down the river to the next good fishing spot. During early mornings and winter days we tended to make time for short coffee breaks. Afterwards I was always sure to secure my thermos by tying it to the frame of my pontoon boat just as I did with all of my gear. In the case of an accident that saw my boat getting flipped (like I wrote about earlier in this post), I didn’t want to lose any of my valued belongings and that most definitely included my coffee.

As with fly-fishing, the majority of my time involving typewriters is pretty much a solo effort. Sure, just as with fly-fishing there is a dedicated community for fans of typewriters and it is a great one. Much like fly-fishing, I like talking with others about typewriters and how to best solve certain problems that arise. Most of those who I knew that fished tended to have a quiver of different rods for different seasons and rivers, just as typewriter fans tends to own multiple typewriters for a variety of different reasons. While I do watch typewriter-related videos from time to time, I can not imagine there ever being a typewriter video that will top Todd Moen’s fly-fishing videos and that’s okay.

When I am sat down in front of a typewriter working out in my mind what I am going to write next, I am squarely in my own head. This is not unlike when I was fishing, focused on my line drifting in the current, watching for the slightest of abberations. While typing it is the sound of the clacking of the typebar stops against the anvil of the machine along with the type slugs transferring ink from the ribbon to the page against the platen that is primarily responsible for breaking any silence.  When fly-fishing the sounds of nature provide the soundtrack most of the time. In either case I rarely think about anything other than what I am focused on the vast majority of the time. This is a big part of the appeal of both activities.

If you are wondering why I no longer fish, the answer is a bit complex to be honest. For one thing, my buddy Jade moved up to Washington. Our respective drives to meet up at one of the two rivers we typically fished were already long enough when we both lived in the Portland area. In the summer time that could mean getting up as early as 4:00 a.m. and that could be really hard on me with multiple sleep disorders. To be honest, there were some days when I would skip a run or two out on the river as I just couldn’t stay awake. I always feared that Jade was going to strike it big with a fish that I would have caught had I not needed to sleep, but that never actually happened. Without a buddy to fish with you can’t go floating down the river by yourself. Not unless you pay a service to meet you at a takeout point at a predetermined time.  Fly-fishing was already expensive enough as it was.

But even before Jade moved, there was a bigger problem for me. Though I spent just under a decade fly-fishing, the drop in the number of fish in the area rivers was quite noticeable during this time. On top of that, due to climate change, the water temperatures of those rivers were rising every year — to levels that were sometimes lethal for the fish in the summer. The act of reeling in a fish could possibly kill those fish that were already struggling with the water temps as they would fight you for all they were worth. Wild steelhead are under enough pressure as it is and catch & release practices are mandatory for those fish. This was fine by me. Like I said, I was out there for many reasons other than the fish. Then again, it wasn’t like I was hooking all that many fish to begin within.

I was already dealing with enough problems involving depression and anxiety as it was. I really didn’t need to lump in additional concerns over potentially killing wild steelhead. Besides, I had managed to squeeze more than a few decades worth of fun into those years that I did fish. I might well return to the river with fly rod in hand in search of steelhead if things appear to be taking a turn for the better. In the meantime, while it can’t come close to the sort of beauty and excitement that fly-fishing for steelhead did, this hobby involving typewriters has served as a substitute of sorts in a surprising number of ways.

AFTERTHOUGHTS: When I first sat down to write this post I imagined myself writing maybe a handful of paragraphs at most. Looking back over what I have actually written, it’s no wonder that I find myself going through typewriter ribbon at the rate I am. Whether writing a blog post, a letter, or something just for the fun ot it, I typically wind up writing much more than I had originally intended. Hopefully if I stick with this long enough I will begin to make strides in self-editing as I go.

It might be a bit hard to make out what is happening, but if you are curious here is a short video I made of my own spey casting efforts (with the motion slowed down during the cast itself).