Joe and Ed and me

Two masters and a convert

We had driven the few hours south on the interstate and were approaching the entrance to the Allenberry Resort Inn and playhouse, a rather unassuming entrance for such a fabled landmark. After all this hid from view one of the most famous limestone streams in America, the “Yellow Breeches”. We were not apprehensive in any way, after all this was not my first visit.  Those who enter this long tree lined lane know that once they pass through this tunnel like canopy of two hundred year old trees they will have entered into a fisherman’s paradise. I guess the first clue is the sign at the end of the lane that plainly states, “Fishermen’s Parking”. I know that this is hard to envision but we’re talking about a Resort Inn with theatre and all the deluxe accommodations that come with it, totally encompassing a large parking lot marked “Fishermen’s Parking”. It just not something you see everyday.

As with my first visit I am again late, so late in fact our hosts have departed for a walk on the Yellow Breeches. Our hosts for this weekend were two of the greatest Fly Fishermen of the 20^th Century, Joe Humpheys and Ed Shenk. By the time we got checked in with all our Television Cameras and equipment (I guess I forgot to mention, the “we” I referred to earlier was myself, and my camera crew. Together we produced a television show on Fly Fishing), they (Ed and Joe) had left word that they would meet us in the morning at breakfast.

At that point I had said to myself, “this is starting to sound like my first visit”. Of course back then I wasn’t a Television Producer. Actually please don’t’ think network big shot when you hear producer but think of a local TV station with a miniscule budget when you think of this producer. Back then I was one of those type “A” personalities totally consumed with the business world and what ever the successful dilatants were doing this month. It was within one year of the movie, “A River Runs through it”, and as you can remember everyone was flocking to Fly Fishing. I can remember the first night back then and all the Jaguars and Mercedes parked outside the lodge. I remember watching as those owners removed Rods and Rod cases, fishing vest and waders, most of which still had the price tags on them. I could see the inquisitive looks on their faces as some of this equipment seemed quite foreign to them. I can remember thinking to myself “ God I hope I don’t come off as one of them”. My story was different, well at least I had hoped it was different.

Because of my ambitious personality I had not had the time nor the patience for fishing, at least not since I was a teenager. Even back then nothing seemed more boring then bait fishing by casting my line in a lake or pond and waiting and watching my bobber for a nibble. My father was a fly fisherman who had retired from fishing for many years and was just getting back into it for several years when his maker took him back home, much to early for my liking of course. My father was my idol, my mentor and my best friend. I was devastated by his passing. When I saw the movie and watched the ending where the oldest brother was now in his later years, I could not help but to see my father in that old man. When I got home from the movies I went down into the basement and hunted for my fathers gear. I sat and had my cry and then began the task of finding someone to teach me what my father wanted to teach me all along. I guess I owed it to him.

Enter a local Fly Shop owner in my home town of Pottsville, Pa.. The town made famous by author John O’hara and Yuengling beer (America’s Oldest Brewery). Ed Kindred gave me a rudimentary education on casting and knot tying. Even though I didn’t buy anything from him but my fly line and flies he came to my office and gave me personal instruction and reading material to enhance my knowledge that was somehow internalized through my father.

Had I remained under Ed’s tutelage it certainly would have been enough, however those demons inside me that cause me to have a never ceasing thirst to be the best led me to Joe Humphreys. It’s hard to remember back that far but I do believe the Allenberry had an ad in the Mid Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide.

As I stated before, I arrived late even on the first visit and as Joe himself would tell you it went downhill from there. That visit included a Tornado, flash flooding, hours without power, Kidney Stones, an ambulance ride and admission into the hospital for me. Through all that commotion I still departed with probably the most valuable fly fishing education to date. I, who had never cast a line with anything but a dryfly, nor did I have a knowledge of any other fly, now had a total knowledge of the sub surface life of fly fishing.

The words of Joe Humphreys still ring out in my mind today as they did twelve years ago, “ 90% of all fish spend 90% of their life feeding below the surface”. This isn’t theory this is an irrefutable Law of nature.

While preparing the logistics to lay out this show I realized something that had really escaped me all the years in between. I realized that even though I idolized Joe Humphreys and had set him up in my own mind as the undisputed authority on flyfishing, it was Ed Shenk’s style that I had emulated all these years. You see the two of them are perfect partners in their approach to Fly Fishing instruction. They are the proverbial, Lewis and Martin, Burns and Allen, Simon and Garfunkel of Fly Fishing. Joe teaches Nymph fishing and Ed teaches streamer fishing.

Now as I prepared to go and film these two giants I realized that the lessons that I hoped to secretly absorb, after all I wasn’t here as a student I was here to film a show, were that of Joe’s legendary casting technique and Ed’s 6 foot rod, 3 weight line fishing with streamers.