Knowing Your Water

There’s a common misconception floating around that to extract the greatest enjoyment from fishing, you need to have fished many different types of water in many different places. Those who’ve been lucky enough to learn and appreciate everything there is to know about one body of water know different. Jack Overman has been fishing Kansas’s Roaring River State Park for seventy-five years, and we’re guessing he doesn’t feel he’s missed out. “For Overman, the most significant differences between then and now are the dramatic increase in numbers of anglers and the advances in their equipment. He isn’t happy about the latter. ‘Back in the ’30s, open-faced and closed-face spinning reels hadn’t been invented yet, so it was all fly-fishing. That was work.’ ” Jim Low on Kansas City’s Infozine.com.