Fly Fishing with Lee Powers in Delaware

So Fly: Fooling fish with feather and fur

by Bob Yearick | Photographs by Jared Castaldi Published March 16, 2012 at 01:27 PM

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Panfish are found in freshwater throughout the state.

Beginners should be aware that fly fishing is not the adventure portrayed in “A River Runs Through It,” the 1992 Robert Redford-directed film based on the 1976 novella of the same name by Norman Maclean. The movie features Brad Pitt as uber-fisherman, performing improbable feats like wading neck-deep into a raging western river, his cowboy hat festooned with flies, to land a trophy trout. The romance of it all sent baby boomers flocking to tackle shops to equip themselves with high-priced gear, after which they hied themselves to the nearest trout streams, where they encroached on the space of grizzled anglers accustomed to having those waters to themselves. While fly fishing got a significant bump from the film, the boomer boomlet lasted only until the neophytes encountered the realities of the sport: It requires patience and an ability to accept rejection; trout are skittish and can be maddeningly selective in their feeding habits, and flies and fly lines have a tendency to snag everything but fish, resulting in the old maxim, “Always buy three of each fly—one for the fish, one for the stream, and one for the trees.”

But the appeal of the sport is undeniable, particularly for devotees like Powers, who soon will be off to Montana to spend another few days on its wild waters. Known among his older comrades at Marblehead as a gonzo fisherman and aggressive wader, Powers says he’s a little more careful than when he was in his 20s. Still, he expresses little concern for his occasional falls on streamside rocks. “Go hard or go home, right?” he says. “Anyway, I clot really fast.”