DROP\SHOT: 07.23.25
Straight from the undercurrent, your weekly fix from Hookswain HQ.
It’s the middle of summer, in middle of nowhere. I’ve got a buzz in the brain. Too much screen time, not enough sun.
Rivers in the Northeast are low and warm and I feel far away from the ritual of suiting up and heading out in search of something. So, I did what I do when I feel cooped up. I made something: Welcome to DROP\SHOT, your new weekly mainline into the Hookswain mainframe.
If you’re new around these parts, grab a toilet seat and stay a while. To my veteran eyeballs, welcome back to the melee.
So here’s the skinny:
Things are weird out there. The feed is full of noise, the algo is fornicating with AI slop in terrifying ways, and enshittification feels more like the norm than the exception. Even fly fishing isn’t safe from the deluge of drivel.
But that’s exactly why we’re here. To cut through it. To find signal in the static. And that’s my aim for DROP\SHOT. Unlike our other verticals, it’s casual, designed to be thumbed through in the edges of you day when you need a little mental protein.
Part notebook, part experimental depth charge.
Less polish, more pulp.
A test signal for half-formed thoughts, half-finished projects, and half-baked rebellions.
Welcome to the noise beneath the noise.
Mad Like You Are
Be careful when inviting guides to fish with you on their day off. They will out-fish you.
Good hearted, thoughtful ones, like Max Hogg, will take long breaks in between landing fish the size of which you only dream of catching. They might let you in on their secret setup, or even, in a bout of generosity of spirit, hand you a few flies and tell you right where to cast. But make no mistake. A guide is first and foremost a fisher, mad like you are, back-bent with the same primordial urge that short-circuits your underdeveloped brain, and will, if you let him, show you precisely why he gets paid to do what he does.
If this should happen to you, don’t feel sorry for yourself. Don’t let a butt-hurt ego muddy your mind. Stay in the game and watch him, study what he does. If it helps, remind yourself that he spends the lion’s share of his life in waders and has made a living helping hacks like you catch fish.
And when he sets the hook into the second twenty-plus-inch brown trout of the day, try to savor that part of you that splits with the sudden recognition that he’s earned something you haven’t yet.
Smile when you net it for him. After all, you invited him.
Long-time readers might remember Max from this June ‘24 installment of Wind Knots:
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Do you start new projects compulsively and
never finish them? Find yourself neck-deep
in yet another quagmire of anxious overcommitment?
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Tell me more, you say?
While Rod Building™ has been used by countless
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How will it fish? 🤷 No one knows!
And the best part is, unlike the scads of other
projects you already have in progress, there isn’t
a single person out there you can hire to help you
finish it.
That’s right — once you start building a rod,
only you can finish it. Finally, a project that will
outlast your motivation, your attention span,
and maybe even your marriage.
Rod Building™ — Finally, a hobby that hates you back.
-----
But wait, there’s more!
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Creator Syndrome™ — Self-loathing never felt so good.
──────────────
*** Ask your doctor if Rod Building™ and Creator Syndrome™
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⚠️ Warning: Rod Building™ is not responsible for marital
strain, missing receipts from proof-of-purchase, or
spontaneous weeping in the epoxy aisle at Ace Hardware.
If you experience symptoms lasting longer than 18 months,
consult a fellow Rod Builder.
💊 Side effects of Rod Building™ may include:
- tendonitis
- existential clarity
- muscle aches
- decreased or blurred vision
- newfound distrust of factory tolerances#senditwithstyle
A chic, classic Costner reminding us that hip boots over jeans deserves a serious comeback. This is angler sprezzatura at its finest, right down to the faded green canoe.
LOST & FOUND: First Tarpon on the Fly
Isla Holbox, Mexico - March 2023
A few years ago, I spent a day chasing tarpon with legendary saltwater guide Alejandro Vega Cruz — better known as Sandflea. His energy is relentless. His knowledge of the flats, generational.
I had hoped to capture the experience with my iPhone, but you can’t cast and film. So I did what I could: I hit pulled up the Voice Memos app, hit record, and let it roll.
The audio files from that day were lost in the Bermuda Triangle of the cloud for more than a year before inexplicably reappearing after a recent iPhone update. I excitedly waded through hours of audio, reliving the fits and starts that is saltwater fly fishing.
The resulting audio clip lands us on Sandflea’s panga just as he spots a school of juvenile tarpon along a mangrove thicket. You can hear it all happen, unvarnished and real; the breathless urgency, the casting chaos, the gentle-but-firm corrections. I’m sure I drove him crazy with how many shots I bungled, but in the end we came tight. It all made for a humbling crash course and an unforgettable day.
I encourage you to give the whole clip a listen; you might learn something too. If nothing else, it’s a sobering reminder to go practice your casting.
Hat tip to Hookswain subscriber Andrew P. for the tip about fishing in Holbox, and connecting me with Sandflea.
DOWNWARD DOG-EARS
Bend the spine. Fold the corner. Stretch your brain.
“How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.”
Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
I recently fished with a guide and the same thing happened. I couldn't get the 20-inch bow to eat my nymph under a bobber; he whipped out a euronymph rig and in three cast had it bent. (The fish had the last laugh and got away after running straight at said guide. Not his first rodeo, either.)