One Monday session included baked flounder, a tasty specimen caught on the fly the previous day by their teacher. I try to make drawings of the fish that I catch so they can learn what they look like. And, of course, I've got to tell them how I catch them. It's likely Ms. Matthews' class will graduate a future fly fisher or two, based on their response. She's already passed on her passion to her college-aged son.
Recruitment is a worthy goal for any angler.
But it's not what Matthews thinks about when she struggles out of bed to be on the water by dawn. Every time I see it, I think how lucky I am to be surrounded by such beauty. I get a knot in my throat. Most men I fish with don't express it quite that way. But it's what many of us feel, just the same.