New York has Lin, Utah has Fin
It’s crazy how someone in the right place at the right time can spark something special. Jeremy Lin, point guard for the New York Knicks, is certainly hot on the basketball scene and in media. He has propelled the lowly Knicks to a string of wins nobody thought possible and spawned a new word in doing so. “Linsanity” is everywhere.
I had the pleasure of watching Jeremy Lin in his first NBA start against my beloved Utah Jazz. I say pleasure even though it was painful to watch him dissect a normally decent Jazz defense. I had never seen him play but in that game I remember wondering, holy cow, where did he come from? Seems like he appeared from nowhere but in reality it was talent, hard work, and the right place, right time. Magic.
This same phenomenon, right place, right time, happens every so often in fly fishing. Days on the water can be good days, sometimes great days, but so many things have to line up for things to turn magical. Luckily, sometimes it happens. I call it Finsanity. This hefty brown trout, with incredible fins himself, happened on just such a day. Things lined up, right place, right time.
The place was the Yellowstone River on the Crystal Ranch. The time was a cool summer afternoon and evening. It had just rained, as it often does in the mountains in summer. The clouds had disappeared by late afternoon and things got interesting.
The first few fish were warm up fish. Bright, smooth little brookies eager as fish ever were to suck in our big dry flies. Not an uncommon occurrence on the Yellowstone. Then it got interesting. Big cutthroat, more brookies, nice browns, and an athletic rainbow shaped like a football and colored brightly. And what a fight. Yeah, this was a good day already, but this was just the start, the start of Finsanity.
What followed was an incredible streak of big browns, mixed with rainbows and cutthroats, and at this point the brookies were basically in danger when they became hooked. It seemed like every big fish in the Yellowstone was hungry and angry at the same time. It was 2 hours or so of magic. Finsanity!
The hefty brown pictured above came in one of the last runs we fished. One of about 5 big fish in that one short run with the fallen fir tree. He absolutely crushed a big yellow stimulator and immediately surged for shelter under the tree limbs. Somehow he was stopped short of the tangle and finally subdued and brought to net on a gravel bar below.It was almost like that fish capped the moment. It was complete. Magic. Finsanity.
We fished for about 30 minutes more but it seemed greedy. We did catch more brightly colored cutthroats, rainbows, brookies, and a few more golden browns but we knew it was time. The golden glow of the lodge windows in the twilight, the warm smells of fresh food cooking, the clean night air, and especially the extreme satisfaction of having experienced magic called us back to the lodge.
Finsanity lives on in memory, fondness, and the few photos we stopped to snap.
Jake Ricks
Guide and Author
