Lifelong Angler: A tribute to Edwin Pease
November 23, 1927 ~ April 5, 2017 (age 89)
My journeys thus far have led me down many paths and with many anglers across this great land of ours. One person that comes to mind is a man named Ed Pease. Ed is 77 years young to date and still going strong, he is a lifelong angler. He makes his way to Alaska each fall in pursuit of Rainbows and Silver Salmon. I met Ed personally after seeing him casting a fly into one of his favorite runs. It was depicted in a watercolor hanging on the wall of Gigglewood Lakeside Inn, a Bed and Breakfast where I was staying the summer. Linda, the owner of the B&B informed me that the man in the painting would be up to fish in August and that I should meet him. So I did.
I was fishing a rather large creek that just happened to be the one in the painting. I wasn’t having much luck when I noticed some anglers wading toward me from upstream. The nearest angler turned to work the pool above me and it was then that I realized it had to be the man in the painting. I later learned it was the very pool that was rendered in the watercolor.
Ed is a lifelong angler, although far from a young man, Ed pursues his passion relentlessly. Four to five weeks each fall you can find Ed angling Alaska’s rivers and lakes in search of something but few will ever understand and many are still searching. Searching for that drift of the fly, the flowing water of a river. Searching for the strike of a Silver Salmon as it leaps from the depths of a well known run. Perhaps it’s the camaraderie found among friends at 3 am joking about bears as we embark on a mile long journey, in the dark, down an even darker path along a salmon choked river or creek.
Ed walks the trail alone as he is let out while the boy’s park the truck. You can see Ed’s hat glisten as the headlights pan across the many flies that adorn it. One might stock their fly box with the flies that drop from Ed’s hat along that trail and if the lucky recipient actually tied one of the colorful flies on they would find out that the fly isn’t just pretty but effective as well. As for me I tend to leave the flies where they lay just in case its Ed’s way of getting back to the truck.
Only Ed can say for sure what it is that motivates him into such pursuits that are far from easy for any man. Rising at 2 a.m. in order to beat the crowds after fishing till late the night before. Then trekking a mile or more to the hot spots on a bum hip and landing as many, if not more, big fish than the rest of us. You should try catching several Silver Salmon in rapid succession in a swift current. Fun for sure, tiring for surer.
Many may wonder what the lifelong angler sees in such pursuits. I assure you that the lifelong anglers of the world know for what they are searching. Because they have already found it. Explaining the feeling or reasoning is usually futile at best. Many, myself included, have grown weary of trying to describe the indescribable.
I have been informed on many occasions that as you grow older your passions change and your priorities get shuffled. My response is that if the fueling of my fire for hunting and fishing ended today it would take more than my lifetime for the fire to go out.
Last season Ed was hand lining for striped bass in the Atlantic Ocean! That’s right, he was pulling 10 to 30 pound striped bass in with his hands. Ed was trolling off the coast of Massachusetts. This year who knows? It is the lifelong anglers such as Ed that give me hope that my passion for fishing will be as strong in the future as they are now and that at age 77 I too can get to the hot spots and cast a fly to a stubborn Coho or a rising Rainbow and be able to land it when I hook it.
Ed said last year it might be his last trip to Alaska. He was promptly reminded that he had made that statement for at least five seasons. As long as the passion is there Ed will be landing Coho and tying god-awful flies that actually catch fish. The passion in many anglers is stronger than aching muscles and joints. The only time the pain subsides is on the water with rod in hand and a fish on the line. I hope to see Ed again on the salmon stream. We can compare flies and tall-tales and enjoy a passion that will continue in the hearts of many well past any of our time here on earth. To Ed Pease of Massachusetts, we salute you as a Lifelong angler and unsung hero to our cause. Thanks for sharing the clean water.
NOTE: The reference at the end “Thanks for sharing the clean water.” has a story all its own.
The clean water referred to at the end of this story involves the deterioration of our favorite creek to catch Coho in Alaska. For several years, at the mouth of this great Alaskan creek, I won’t mention it here because it began to see more and more anglers fishing this small area. It is now listed on the web as a combat fishing spot. In the beginning we enjoyed several hours of fishing without other people crowding the spot. We did get up early and hike into the spot along a bear invested river in the dark but we had until 9 or 10 o’clock. After a few years like this the spot began to be overrun with anglers by 6 am I counted 60 people in a spot that can handle maybe 10 or 12. At this number it was best to be friends as it took some sharing and cooperation for everyone to effectively fish this small area.
The river was very silty and while you could catch some coho in this silty water it needed to be with a spoon or vibrex something that imparted noise, but we all fly fished back then and we needed the clean water, from the crystal clear creek, emptying into the silted river to catch them. We had learned that there was a seam of clean water that flowed underneath the silty river water where the creek flowed in. So, we would line up along this seam and catch coho salmon as they made there way up the silty river to spawn in the creek. After sometime people began to stand where the creek was dumping into the river and cast their lure across the 10 or 12 fly anglers that were fishing along this seam of clean water. They would not have any respect for the anglers that had been there since daylight and constantly would cross our lines. The great conversation and occasional catch of a coho and sometimes even a good size rainbow that was following the coho up the river.
After several mornings of this Ed began to straddle the seam. By standing in this spot and pretending to fish it allowed the anglers along the seam of clean water to fish. The conversation and fun catching coho returned. We would rotate time protecting the clean water from the disrespectful anglers that made you wonder what they were thinking. I eventually started leaving by 6 or 7 am with my limit to escape the onslaught but my buddies stayed and would fish for many hours practicing catch and release they would catch many salmon and enjoy the day even with all of the people around them. Ed was a good friend and part of my story as a fly fisherman and adds much joy to my memories.
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