It was the late E.O. Wilson, a native Alabamian, who understood the conservation needs of Alabama, and it was he that gave us the moniker— “The Aquatic State.” I once saw a famous entomologist from Harvard speak to a jam-packed Bartow Arena, and I saw him speak a second time at the University of Wyoming in a massive auditorium. I remember being a mere teenager when he told me and the rest of Bartow that a colony of ants in Mobile County drew him into the study of bugs. Looking closely at the anthill as we often do when we fish Wilson dedicated himself to conservation. As fishermen we turn rocks over, and look closely at our surroundings. It is a way of life. I remember that in Wyoming Wilson discussed how so many people can’t see the forests for the trees, and then he showed in a photo the complex ecosystem that exists below the leaf of said tree. I am amazed that so few people in my life understand the nature of these complex relationships.
I am resigning as President of the Rainbow Fly Fishing Club to focus my energies on building a new club that only exists via the digital landscape. I guess since the Rainbow Club is currently meeting in a Lutheran Church on Rainbow Drive that I will cite church differences of belief. I think conservation should be central to a club concerned with fly fishing, but maybe I represent a “woke” millennial-X perspective about the sport.
The club was not all bad. It taught me the value of a good grassroots project that leads to a pure connectedness with people, but the club’s actions towards conservation, or more aptly their inaction, are having deleterious effects on my will to work within this particular club. Stewardship values are essential to a sustainable growth in the interest of fly fishing, and “growth-growth-growth” is one way the environment has found itself imperiled at the expense of human doings.
The club we are starting is meant to connect Alabama hustlers that are working with fish and ecologies of knowledge based inquiry. They might be guides, fish biologists, or regular biologists, they might be academics, they might be artists, they might be river keepers, they might be journalists, they might be teachers, they might be pastors, they might be atheists, but most importantly they are anglers. We only discriminate based on your level of intelligence, which is a difficult metric to gauge. Any “real” angler is concerned about protecting their waterways, and streams. Any “real” angler can surely think this through.
When I was a kid there was a leather jacket called “members only.” This club has to be exclusive, sorry in advance if you do not get an invite. Im trying to keep the riff riff out. Sue me.
There will be fishing trips too, but there will be no spot poaching. This is grounds for dismissal from future zoom meetings. If you were thinking, “duh,” and I forget to ask you to join, then send me an email. Looking forward to connecting.
You may be asking yourself how is this different from the Fly Fishing Alabama Facebook group? My hope is to draw many followers on that page to hear nationally recognized speakers on fly fishing ephemera once a month on topics ranging from fly tying to an exotic trip offering like a traditional club model, but even more to the book club type events where naturalist authors zoom in for a call. Most importantly it is a community of like-minded people with diverse backgrounds. We are unified by our esteem and desire to enjoy the natural world. Sometimes that will mean embracing science to see how we can better steward our wild fish spaces. Sometimes it will mean a look at art and culture to see humans are emotionally and physically responding to their environment. As my co-consul friend and chief encouragement officer, Mary Beth Meeks has said,
“I think there’s so much good that we can all do and have an absolute blast doing it! If we can’t use our gifts to do good then we don’t really deserve to be that gifted at them. That’s the way I see it!”
If you are still reading this manifesto, then we are fortunate to have each other. Please reach out to me or Mary Beth if you are interested in joining for our next event. We will consider all applicants, but reserve the right to refuse entry based on our sense of a luke warm interest that is not really tethered to fly fishing and the environment. This is about the culture of fly fishing in Alabama, whatever that may look like. The E.O. Wilson club is a place where civility in discussion is the prevailing maxim, and it is a supportive community to meet about and discuss projects, or needs in the fly fishing community. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mary Beth Meeks: mbmeeksart@yahoo.com
Carp South: johnagricola@yahoo.com