Mark Hume Noticing Nature and Fly Fishing

Episode 11 Mark Hume is a former national correspondent for The Globe and Mail and is the author of five natural history books. His latest, Trout School - Lessons from a Fly-fishing Master, came out last year and he is currently working on a book to be published in the fall of 2021. Mark has fly fished in BC for 50 years and lives in Vancouver with his life-long partner, famed science writer, Margaret Munro. Full disclosure here, Marg is my life-long friend and I hope to have her on this show to talk about her national geographic work on Grizzly Bears.

Q: Would you please tell us why you wrote Trout School? 

The book is about my relationship with Mo Bradley, a former fly-fishing guide, and innovative fly fisher in Kamloops British Columbia.

I was up fishing in that area and came across a little pamphlet that he had written.  who wrote a pamphlet for all the kids he was teaching to fly-fish. This was simple paper stapled between cardboard covers.

He wrote this to help his fly-tying students. He helped kids and anyone in Kamloops interested in how to tie flies.

When I read that little pamphlet, I thought it was such a great distillation of fly-fishing knowledge, I wanted to bring it to a larger audience because he had only printed a few hundred copies.

I wanted to share that with people so I sat down with Mo and said we should republish this. But when I talked to book publishers they said, we need a bigger story.

Over the years for more than a decade, whenever I fished with Mo I interviewed him about his techniques and methods. I learned a lot from Mo. I tried in the book to pass on that knowledge.  

What I really wanted to do is to encourage people to go fishing because it is such a restorative experience. And for those who fish already, I wanted them to slow down because that is one of Mo’s key’s to success. He moves so purposefully on the water and observes everything.

As you know from forest bathing and walking in the woods, if you slow down you see more in nature. And in fishing you just become a better fisher. You see the insects, you become aware of the different life stages they are at. You start watching the birds – which a lot of people are not aware of – share a common food with the fish. So if you can figure out  what the birds are eating, you can figure out what the fish are eating.

When I advise people to slow down in fishing, I am doing the same thing that you doing in your book, for physical and mental health.

So it has been very satisfying for both Mo and I, and we have heard from a lot of people that they are going fishing more, or a lot have taken up fishing because of the book.

Q:  A few of our listeners might be fly fishers, some that might try in the future, and some that would just like to know more about it. For those of us who know nothing about fly fishing can you give us little primer please? How and why does one fly fish? Is it always for trout? Catch and release? Fish barbless? 

Yes absolutely. It is kind of a daunting sport if you don’t have somebody to show you – hands on. It is a bit intimidating because you watch people fly fish and it is so graceful – and it’s like am I going to take up ballet at this late stage of my life?

The technical aspects of fly casting are actually very easy to learn. When people ask me to show them, I have it down to 5 minutes. So if you are interested in fly fishing don’t let learning to cast put you off. In medium sized or large cities, they have fly casting lessons available right in the shops.

The other side is the fishing side of it: learning all about fish and nature. I like to tell people:

“ I can teach you to fly cast in five minutes, but you will spend the next 20 years learning to fly fish.” 

Find the complete episode transcription at  Treesmendus.com