12 From 2022

A year’s worth of magical images from the School of Trout

Photos by Tim Romano & Jeremy Roberts. Words by Todd Tanner

There are days when I’m not convinced our society can tell the difference between a blessing and a curse.  That said, I do think it’s much easier for fly fishers to make that particular distinction … if only because we’re tied, however tenuously, to the real world; to nature.

We’re all tempted, of course, to shut our eyes and surrender to the momentum of American culture; to focus on the number of fish we just caught, or the size of that last big brown trout, or the shiny baubles of our sport — the rods and the reels and the flies.  It’s the path of least resistance, and it requires far less effort on our part. At the end of the day, though, our embrace of the long rod offers possibilities beyond mere inertia. Fly fishing is a direct conduit to the natural world; to those brief interludes of clarity and purpose that sparkle here and there amidst the insistent gloom of modernity.

Nature protects us and transforms us.  Our time on the water is a shield against a culture grown numb and increasingly brittle.  And beauty remains a balm for the soul.

One of the blessings — and it is truly a blessing — of running a small fly fishing school is that I get to work with several stellar professional photographers.  Which means that I’m afforded an opportunity to see fly fishing, and nature in the raw, though their lenses as well as my own.

It becomes an obligation, then, to share their best images from our time together.  So much of modern culture seems focused on acquisition, on hoarding, on “this is mine, not yours.”  Perhaps fly fishing, done well, can help counter-balance that trend — and perhaps those of us who have spent decades immersed in angling can share more than just a bit of advice, or our personal stories.  Maybe we can point the way towards a world beyond the ordinary; a world where the journey and the destination eventually merge into respites of grace and beauty.

My words, of course, can’t do justice to the images you’ll see down below.  Tim Romano and Jeremy Roberts are two of the very best, and their photos from their time at the School of Trout speak for themselves.  My only hope is that you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.

(There are approximately 30 photos down below. The editor or art director can pick the final dozen, or opt for more or fewer images.

The text and photo descriptions can be changed to fit the magazine’s desired focus. The photos can emphasize nature, or fly fishing, or both.)