Lawfully Wadered: a Fly-Fishing Wedding
I’m at the age where you go to a lot of weddings (Lady CFS and I are planning one ourselves) but I didn’t think the annual Montana trip would include one. But was I ever wrong! Two members of the club got wedded, while wader-ed, on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake river down in Idaho. It was pretty unique.
In that spirit, here’s a “Top 10 things to remember when planning or attending a fly-fishing wedding” list. Because, one day, you too might wind up at one.
Wear your formal waders
Rods line up in descending order for the arch: bamboo, Winston, all others
Nippers can be used to clip errant nose hairs that have grown long after a few weeks on the river. Do not use forceps.
Choose a river no one has fished well (in our case, the Henry’s Fork of the Snake) and you might just infuse a bit of luck.
Pepper the ceremony with quotable bits. In our case Darius Larsen of All Saints in Big Sky did his homework.
It’s impossible to avoid cliches, so embrace them wholeheartedly, because, hey, weddings are about cliches: “tie the knot”, “perfection loop”, “catching the big one”, “catch and not release” (Go ahead and add your favorites in the comments.)
While bear spray is a nice decor choice, the potential for disaster looms large.
You can never account for the strange German kayaker in a very small bathing suit who lurks in the bushes by the boat launch for the whole ceremony, looking on with a mixture of shock and keen interest.
Throwing flies at the bride and groom wil be considered chumming.
Consider joining the rings with a length of tippet to avoid any slip-ups on the hand-off.
Been to a shindig like this? What did we miss? Answers on a postcard, or in the comments below.