Fly Fishing People
MidCurrent Interview: Guy de la Valdene
OUR CONVERSATION with Guy de la Valdene transported us back to the post-war "boom" in destination fly fishing, the era of the pioneering Florida Keys guides, Parisian film studios, and to the days when de la Valdene and his friends enjoyed a heady mixture of talent, freedom and experimentation that blurred the lines between fishing and life.
MC: WHAT WAS THE UNIQUE CHEMISTRY or alignment of the stars that brought everyone together in Key West in the early '70s?
GDLV: What I might do, just because it's easier for me, is to go back even a little bit even further than that. My story is very closely tied, first, to Gil Drake, and then of course McGuane, Harrison, Chatham, and Buffett, that whole group. My first fishing experiences actually started with Gil Drake. We went to school together in the late '50s when his father opened up Deep Water Cay, which is the bonefish lodge situated at the east end of Grand Bahama, in 1957. Gil and I went to a great school called Graham-Eckes School for Young Gentlemen in Palm Beach, Florida. The reason that it was great was that there were 70 girls and 45 boys. And the girls were very pretty.
Fly Fishing People
Rodholders: John Gierach
YOU'RE A CAB DRIVER in New York City in 1971, trying to make a right hand turn at a busy Manhattan intersection but there's some cocky bike messenger in your way and he won’t move...
...so you nudge him. Not hard, just enough to let him know that you're in a cab and he's on a bike and if he doesn't move and soon you might run his ass over. But the bike messenger does a strange thing. He doesn't move out of your way. He gets off his bike, walks to the front of your cab, and swiftly kicks your headlight in. Then he invites you to step outside and discuss the matter further. You, as the cab driver, make a wise choice and roll up the window instead. Because you've just met John Gierach on a bad day and getting out of your car would only make it worse.
Saltwater Fly Fishing
Fly Fishing People: Bill Curtis
EARLY ON A HOT March morning, we find ourselves standing outside the Miami Dadeland Marriott hotel, waiting for the odyssey to begin.
Our friends had told us we should start this book project with Bill Curtis. They said most of what we would see in the coming months had been, at least in part, created, improvised, explained, or experienced by Curtis. He is, by unanimous account, one of the fathers of saltwater flats fishing, and one of the last living legends of this game. But the best part of the story is that Bill Curtis, now in his late seventies, is still playing it.
