One rainy November evening a few years back, I drove from my office to Reliance Tennessee. Set off by itself in the cleft of a steep wooded hillside sat a small cabin full of people I had met on the internet, but in truth, they were strangers. Nervously I unloaded my modest assemblage of fishing gear and walked through the front door. Little did I know that I had stepped into my own future, and a litany of friendship.

Large congregations of folks can sometimes be a disjointed mess. So many different personalities and diverse walks of life mingled together always have an element of discord…or so I thought.

Walking through that door I stepped into a very unique brotherhood. I dare say that my growth as an angler would have been a slow laborious process had it not been for these men. I was still “green as a gourd”, but it mattered not to them. I was there, and by my appearance, I became one of them.

Many months have passed since that day, and the friendship, fellowship, and brotherhood has only grown. We have met on many different waters, and our adventures in that span of time have been the source of connection, both to one another and to our sport.

Soon the icy chill of the mid winter will call us together. From all across the region we will load up our gear and converge on a river that for me is a magic place. Miles from Reliance, but that same feeling will be there.

God has blessed me with more friends than I deserve within this group of men. I know of hardships, victories, life changes, and struggles as they are discussed amid the gurgle of the stream. My life, both in and out of the river is made fuller by having known them.

For every soul there is a river…and for me…every river resonates with the power of our unique brotherhood.

Ice is the greatest of all of natures liars. It looks smooth, wet, accommodating. Snow, though beautiful, is dangerous without concealing the hazardous potential it controls. Ice hides, giving itself names that denote the potential for betrayal. Black Ice, the greatest of all the winter liars. Today, the black Ice converged upon my little corner of the world, turning normal roads into demolition courses, and sending untold numbers of people to either the hospital or the morgue. Black Ice is a killer, of that you can be sure.

I waited until the majority of the carnage had been exacted before venturing out. My path to the office riddled with broken vehicles that were fooled by the Ice into a false idea of ease before it reached up out of the darkness and took tons of metal and with one little swish, turned it from a vehicle, to a carcass. Broken bits of fenders and bumpers jutted up from the sides of the road as if they were reaching out form benevolence. Benevolence is something to which Black Ice holds no claim.

I drove with my hands at ten and two, kept the radio volume down low, and looked far ahead along my chosen pathway. I did this not because I do not trust my own driving skills, but because the killer was obviously out and about and would strike without any warning. When dealing with the uncontrollable, it is best to set your sights and move forward knowing that the potential for mishap is always looming round the next bend.

Tonight, as the darkness of night settles along Riverdale, the Black Ice will dance; running its cold touch along places reclaimed by water and salt during the day. Tomorrow the light will once again try to penetrate the clouds, and in the darker places the killer will be lurking, waiting for the bravado of those who fail to recognize that when paired against the harsh reality of creation itself, nature will always be there waiting for the one foolish mistake in which it pronounces its ownership over the world.

A good friend of mine ran into some trouble the other day while fishing one of our mountain streams. One minute he was standing shin deep in gin clear water, and the next, he was struggling to get to shore as a flash flood roared out of the high country. Thankfully he made it to safety, but his experience got me thinking.

In our part of the country, very few things in nature can kill you. Sure we have bears, copperheads, rattlers, and the occasional black widow or brown recluse, but in the big picture encounters with those dangers are rare.

We have no deadly fish. No flesh eating reptiles or North American kin of the piranha, but we do have one thing that can be as dangerous as a loaded gun to the head…the river itself.

Knowing just how life threatening swift moving water can be, why do we willingly go stand mid stream? Quite simply…that is where the fish are.

My Father sides with caution in all things. For him throwing caution to the wind is not even in his vocabulary, and from him, I have learned. Each time I step into the water, it is as if I can hear his voice in my head telling me to be careful. I am a grown man, and being careful is a given, but I still hear him, and to a great extent I heed his love filled warnings.

One of the Fly Fishing greats, A.K. Best, who has been a sidekick to John Gierach on more than one misadventure, has a great rule of thumb that I have adhered to my own philosophy. To paraphrase, he said that he sets a boundary on just how deep he will fish, and I have done the same. I will not wade through water that is above my waist. I also will not traverse swift water just to reach an inviting spot on the other side. It just isn’t worth it. I say that I agree with him, but… present me with the opportunity to cast at a 26” Brown who is actively feeding on the other side…

I guess even the Enlightened have their weaknesses……

New life. Just saying it aloud sounds encouraging, ringing with hope, full of endless possibilities. New life is coming to our Family. Sometime before the leaves that have yet to bud begin changing to shades of yellow, red, and orange, I will be blessed with another fishing buddy.

I can honestly say that my two daughters, the oldest of the siblings, have done something that very few people, let alone kids, have ever done. This past summer they each caught their first fish, two beautiful wild rainbow trout, on a 5’ 4wt. bamboo rod that their Daddy made just for them. The joy on their faces was only equaled by the joy in “the old man’s” heart. These little princesses standing up to their waists, bare legged, in a cold Smoky Mountain stream. Let me tell ya, Dollywood has nothing on the Adventure based theme park that God created with his own hands.

To teach our kids that the joy, excitement, and wonder of creation is far more thrilling than anything man can contrive is so important. To see the wonder and amazement on the face of a kid as they are engulfed in the magnificence of the world. So much of life now is electronic, sterile, emotionless fodder. And now, with Gods Grace and Blessing, I will be given yet another opportunity to instill in the future generations of my own lineage the love of the world as it is unhindered by man. To know that my children love God, and love the bounty of His creativity and power, is an accomplishment that is paramount to seeing myself as a successful parent.

New Year’s resolutions have always seemed so odd to me. Usually what you are resolving to change should have been done long ago and do not require a first of the year start off date to employ, yet year after year, millions will say that they are going to do something…yet few will actually accomplish their goals. Why? Quite frankly, they didn’t want to do it in the first place even though they know that it needs to be done. My Father smoked for thirty years or more before finally laying them down. How many times did he try and fail? The bottom line was not the failure, it was that he kept trying until he reached the point where his desire to lay them down and his ability to enact that change were on the same page.

Sure, there are tons of things I would like to change in 2008, but instead of resolutions, I like to set goals to have completed by years end. So…here are my goals for 2008.

1) To fish a new river.
2) To fish for Largemouth Bass with a fly rod.
3) To get closer to my goal of building my own boo rod.
4) To loose enough weight to feel good about how I look again.
5) To start on a new novel.

Ambiguous goals no doubt, but all are achievable if I don’t set a static time table, just write them down and keep them in mind as I fumble my way through the year.

Here’s to 2008. May your resolutions become goals, and your goals become reality.

Marc