A Spring Flybox

"Flies have a strong, marvelous power, and each is meaningful as a point of contact with nature. Embodied in the fly is a message that reflects the tyer's point of view about nature. By creating an enduring fly, you convey your message to future fly fishers."
-Nori Tashiro

In one week, I've filled my flybox to beyond capacity. Nothing in this box represents anything real or natural. But steelhead trout are anything but real. They are to rainbow trout what steel is to iron. As I write, schools of sea bright steelhead are swarming the Gulf of Alaska at the mouth of the Situk River. Their bodies are undergoing a chemical shift that will allow them to enter the fresh water. Their chrome will change to green and red and silver and they will stop eating. In a month, they will have found their way upstream to their redds in the river and its tributaries. The fighting that will take place for those redds will be far more violent but no less dramatic than the fighting that should take place as a result of this flybox. In just over a month, these flies will swing in and out of as many redds as I can find. May they be tempting enough to induce a bite and tied well enough to survive the thrashing.