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River of Death

Kayak fly fishing in the Blue Ridge Mountains is as tough as Quantico Marine officers' boot camp.

River of Death

(Al Hassal art)

It was to be my first kayak fishing adventure since April, 1959. “I don’t want to go,” I told my wife. “I’m 76 years smart, if not old.”

Fifty-five years is a long hiatus to recover from a near-death kayak experience. In ’59, the kayak advantage in reaching untouched trout streams as they unlocked from winter ice in western Massachusetts was too much for a college freshman to resist. One-man Klepper kayaks seemed just the ticket back then when we pool-hopped and fished our way downstream on the North Branch of the Deerfield River. Kayaks were just entering the vision of boys (and a generation) who had more guts than brains.

No sweat....

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