An Angler's Tales

Anglers are a peculiar breed -- they come in all shapes, sizes, genders, races, backgrounds, nationalities and social status. ey all share one thing in common: the pursuit of fish. But what these people enjoy has nothing to do with actually catching a fish -- it's easier to go to a market -- it's the perfection of an art, a combination of skill in casting, tying an imitation of an insect from feather on a hook, understanding that insect's place in its environment, presenting that fly in such a manner that it appears to a fish to be its natural prey.Their stories are as different as they are, joined by a thread woven of the call of the river, the pursuit of the perfect drift and the endless hope that a fish will rise. Here are a few stories about these individuals who aspire to the name angler.

Art Palmer was brought up on a farm in upstate New York. He learned his skills as an angler and woodsman from his father. His lifelong love of fly fishing began early with an old cane rod of his father's. Along the way he had three daughters who are now grown with families of their own and supplied him with six grandchildren to spoil and entrance with stories -- he swears some are even true. He has fished from one coast to the other, guided deer and elk hunts in the Rockies; even done some gold prospecting along the way, stockpiling a list of characters and tales to pass on. He retired from making a living in the mental health eld to pursue his avocation as an angler. He taught himself the craft of bamboo y rod building by restoring old fly rods, and still pursues tying the perfect dry fly. He remains here in the Hudson Valley with his dog Dolly and two freeloading cats close to the Catskill Mountains and its fabled streams.