I know just as much as I need to know
And you know more than you think
While reading Steve Duda’s excellent book, “River Songs”, I came across this passage.
“… or it could be the fact that I feel, river mile after river mile, like I’ve been fishing this water my whole life. I know what’s around the next bend. I know where the fish are supposed to be. I know just as much as I need to know.”
After reading it, I reflected on my own fishing journey. In the early days, there wasn’t a lot of water that felt familiar, and fly-fishing wasn’t something I was good at. But I wanted to learn, so I kept at it. Over the years, as my skill and experience grew, I developed a preference for mountain streams, first in my native New Hampshire and later here in Virginia. They have been and continue to be a comfortable and comforting venue. The experience is as Duda describes.
For someone getting started in fly-fishing, it may seem like there is a lot to learn. There is, but it shouldn’t be daunting. Fly-fishing isn’t hard. It takes no more skill than most other things. The water you fish will not seem familiar. But it will start to be. And some will become favorites.
As I tell my students, “Time on the water is the best teacher.” The more time you spend on the water, the more you will learn. Each time you go you’ll learn a little more. If you use learning as the measure of success, rather than the number or size of fish caught, then you quickly find that you know as much as you need to know to go out and do it again. That’s the beauty of fly-fishing you keep learning, and more and more water becomes familiar even if you’ve never fished it before.
If there was one aspirational goal to share with my students and you, my cherished readers, it’s understanding that you know just as much as you need to know. And you know more than you think you do.
I love this sentiment. It's so true for fly fishing, and for all the other moments in life we feel unprepared for.
I have to pass this on to Duda! As a local legend, he and his book (River Songs) are very well-loved here in the Seattle fly fishing literary scene. It’s hard to tell how far the book’s popularity has traveled — I own two signed copies, and that book sells out constantly at fly shops.
Worthy of noting, first edition signed copies can be ordered through his website. https://www.stevedudawrites.com/store/p/river-songs-signed-edition
I think he’ll be chuffed to read this from a VA writer and angler. You’re certainly one of my favorite writers using ff as subject and metaphor — and that’s saying a lot given the storied tradition since Izaac Walton (and earlier) up to the present.