Edited from first publish: Utah Fishing and Outdoors Magazine. volume 5 number 8, May 1, 1991
God grant that I may live to fish until my dying day
And when it comes to my last cast, then I most humbly pray,
When in the Lord's safe landing net I'm finally asleep,
That in his mercy I may be judged as big enough to keep.
I don't suppose most guys would willingly admit this even if they could, but in all honesty and without regret, I must confess that most of my fishing experience and knowledge came by the hand of a great lady I proudly called Grandma.
She couldn't have stood more than 4 feet 9 inches tall on her best day and may have weighed a full 95 pounds. A birth defect left her with a funny walk but Lord protect the man who dared call her a cripple. Meaner than a half starved she lion if pushed. She had no fear of man or beast. I believe even in her later days she could have whipped a stout man in a fair fight. I have heard of several occasions when she did exactly that in her younger days.
She could also be very warm and loving. This was her normal character and it didn't matter if you were a stranger or a grandson. One of her favorite sayings was, "A stranger is just a friend you havn't met yet." She truly lived by this belief. If you ever ran into her along the banks of a river somewhere, she probably died remembering your name and some secret or fly you traded with her.
I remember an occasion some years ago when I was at her home and some men I didn't know came to the door looking for her. I let them in; though I was more than a little suspicious. Being a young scrapper I figured I could handle any trouble. When they saw her, the one gentleman said, "Mable, how the heck ya doin?" She looked happy to see them so I figured it was okay. He said, "I had some trouble finding you but that fly you gave me was fantastic. We were hoping to buy a few from you." She just turned and headed to her tying table. Handing them her fly box she said, "They ain't fer sale but you take what you need." Then she went to put on some coffee.
I figured that these men must be old friends but after they left I found out that they were from Montana and had met grandma some months earlier out fishing somewhere.
This was her way. She'd go out of her way to help some stranded motorist or a fellow sportsman and it often seemed like nothing was too much trouble.
She was sentimental to a fault. Several years ago my mother worked for Browning making fishing rods in our home. One of the best rods she built, she purchased from Browning and gave to grandma. Since mom had made it herself, grandma refused to use it. She'd bring it out to proudly show some visitor but she wouldn't use it. She just wanted to keep it clean and new the way mom gave it to her.
On January 15, 1982, Mike Roberts, then president of the local chapter of the Great Western Fly Fishermans' Club presented her with a plaque and an honorary lifetime membership to that organization. I believe this must have been one of her happiest moments. From then on she would bring out that plaque and show it to anyone who visited--even if they'd already seen it. She often talked about Mr. Roberts and his club with the greatest respect and admiration.
She was also a great deer hunter and on more than one occasion brought a nice buck home from a fishing trip-- along with her fish. During the second week of the 1950 deer hunt she took the second largest deer recorded in this state. It was well written about in the Salt Lake papers because grandma was such a unique deer hunter. Especially in 1950. She won several prizes for that deer.
As I said, grandma taught me most everything I know about fishing. My only regret is that I did not become more interested in fly fishing sooner than I did. She could have taught me much about this sport. Unfortunately, in her last couple years, her arthritis wouldn't let her cast or even tie many flies. She did still cast a pretty fair number of worms in her last two years. Given the choice, she'd have been buried with fly rod in hand.
I often make smart allec about women fisherman but these are intended to give my good wife a hard time more than anything else. I owe a great deal to a pioneer Lady Angler...