Backcast: Fishing through climate change, with John Gierach
The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast
James Hathaway
4.8 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2024
⏱️ 104 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tom is on a fishing trip this week. While on this trip he learned his friend and legendary fly-fishing author, John Gierach had passed away at 78. In his honor Tom asked me to post his last intervew with John from May of last year and to share this with all of you:
"John Gierach was one of the finest voices in fly fishing. He passed away suddenly last week. Always humble and kind, his writing never reached into navel gazing but he just told great, honest, and funny stories and like all great writers he never wasted a word. I once had the pleasure of spending a week sharing a cabin with him in Labrador and he was exactly the man in person that he was in his writing. We will all miss him greatly."
Here is the show descrption from May 19, 2023
Our climate is changing, and regardless of whether you think it's human caused or natural it is changing. If you don't believe that you need to get outside more. John Gierach [58:00], thoughtful guy that he is, wanted to tal.k about this subject and how he deals with changes that have happened in his lifetime, and what we can all do to deal with climate change and still enjoy fly fishing, because as he says "we still gotta live" and to some of us fly fishing is life. I
n the Fly Box this week we have lots of questions, many of them quite basic but still fun to answer because you can always give them a new twist.
What is the best rig to catch trout with worms? (I hope he meant worm flies and not real worms)
What can I do to keep my Depth Charge line from tangling?
I am moving to Texas and want one rod for inland bass and one for inshore saltwater. Is there one outfit that can do this?
Am I better off buying one high-end rod or several lower priced rods if I fish in a variety of trout situations?
Can you overline bamboo and fiberglass fly rods?
I have a dog that likes to chase rocks and sticks.
Any tips on how to train a dog to be a good fishing companion?
Is there any way to tell a trout rise from a chub rise?
I am confused by fly line numbers and hook numbers. Can you explain them?
What do fish deep in a lake take my Pat's Rubber Legs fished quickly? What do the fish think it is?
How do you fish your Rabbit's Foot Emerger patterns?
What do I do with my rod when tying on a new fly or landing a fish?
Is there a better knot than a clinch knot for tying on size 18 to 22 flies?
My welded loop has cuts in it. What can I do to fix that?
What kind of dry/dropper arrangement do you use when there is nothing visibly hatching?
A good tip from a listener on walking the banks of your favorite rivers in low water to get a sense for the bottom structure.
Can you tell the difference between a male and female trout by looking at the anal fin?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone. Tom is on break on a fishing trip this week and on that trip he learned that his friend and |
| 0:07.4 | legendary author John Gerach had passed away. |
| 0:10.4 | Tom asked me to read this before the podcast. |
| 0:16.0 | John Gerach was one of the finest voices in fly fishing. |
| 0:19.0 | He passed away suddenly last week. |
| 0:21.0 | Always humble and kind. His writing never reached into naval gazing, but he just |
| 0:25.7 | told great honest and funny stories. And like all great writers, he never wasted a word. |
| 0:31.8 | I once had the pleasure of spending a week sharing a cabin with him in Labrador, |
| 0:36.0 | and he was exactly the man in person that he was in his writing. |
| 0:40.0 | We will all miss him greatly. Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast this is your host Tom Rosenbauer |
| 0:59.6 | and my guest this week is the great John Gerach. |
| 1:04.0 | John is the author of many, many books. |
| 1:08.0 | He's a favorite of lots of podcast listeners and it's always a treat to talk to John and the topic this week is kind of fishing through climate change. And as John says in the interview, |
| 1:26.4 | if you believe that climate change is human-caused, |
| 1:30.8 | or at least human exacerbated, as most of us do. There's things you can do |
| 1:34.8 | personally and politically, but you still gotta live your life and that's a good point |
| 1:41.1 | and you know life to many of us is fly fishing so we're going to have to deal with with climate change |
| 1:48.2 | even if you don't think it's human caused if you think that the climate isn't changing then you haven't been outside much. |
| 1:57.2 | But you know again we just got we got to live our we've got to learn how to adjust our expectations and our angling practices to deal with climate change. |
| 2:10.0 | So, John I talk about that and we talk about lots of other things that are less serious and more fun. |
| 2:17.0 | So again, it's always a treat to talk to John and I hope you enjoy the interview. |
| 2:24.0 | Oh and by the way, John has a new book out. |
... |
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