Wildside - Famous Fishing Photographers

Days spent fly-fishing with angling heroes

 

 

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Days spent fly-fishing with angling heroes, Nelson Mail, 27 February 2010

Guiding with fly-fishing couple Barry and Cathy Beck is a memorable learning experience.

Weigh to go: Zane Mirfin and Cathy Beck weigh a handsome Motueka River brown trout. American Mrs Beck and her husband Barry are ‘‘superstars’’ of the sport of fly-fishing.

They are the ultimate flyfishing couple and a brand name of desire within the industry.

AFTER nearly 25 years of guiding anglers from all over the world on the rivers of the South Island, I am fortunate to have exciting new fishing experiences almost every day.

Sometimes, I even get to guide the superstars of the fly-fishing industry, like this month. In life, you’re allowed to have fly-fishing heroes and Barry and Cathy Beck of Pennsylvania, in the United States, are certainly two of mine.

The Becks travel the world taking outstanding photographs of fishing, fishing scenes and fly-fishing experiences for commercial and editorial use. Their images grace the cover pages, centrefolds, and pages of prestigious angling publications around the world and are regularly drooled over by anglers.

With a busy and exhausting schedule, they host trips to destinations like Patagonia, Argentina, Belize, Bahamas, Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Mongolia, Brazil and the South Island of New Zealand.

They’ve been hosting some of these trips for 30 years and also have a guiding business and fly-fishing school in Pennsylvania where they lease private water for their anglers to fish and enjoy. Their website, barryandcathybeck.com, has some great images of their proficiency with a digital camera, the quality of angling locations they frequent, or their status within the international fly-fishing fraternity.

The Becks also work the US fishing show circuit representing companies such as Frontiers Travel, Sage, Rio, Redington, Tibor, Smith and so on, with Cathy giving casting demonstrations like a modern-day Annie Oakley. They are the ultimate fly-fishing couple and a brand name of desire within the industry.

Despite their high profile, both are just great people who enjoy fishing. I enjoy their company immensely and we’ve always had a great time together. Best of all, they are happy to share their knowledge and experience and I learn so
much from them both. This year we were assisted by Strike Adventure guides Tony Entwistle, Martin de Ruyter, Cameron Reid, Bill Mckenzie and Clayton Nicholl, fishing with the Becks’ hosted angler guests.

Some of my favourite times with the Becks are the moments walking back down rugged tracks and roads at the end of a fishing day talking about wider industry trends and future opportunities.

Barry and I are both keen angling history buffs and I especially enjoy asking him about the well-known anglers and personalities he has fished with. Barry has been fishing all his life, catching his first trout on a fly at nine, while his parents owned a Pennsylvania fly shop that immersed him in flyfishing culture at an early age.

Now 63, Barry has spent a lifetime building relationships within the flyfishing world.

The history of fly fishing is long, dating back to the ancient Macedonians, but the Brodheads area of Pennsylvania was the cradle of modern American fly fishing in the 19th century. As a result of this history, Pennsylvania has a proud tradition of attracting the best and brightest anglers.

Famous anglers Barry has counted as valued friends include Vincent Marinaro, author of In the Ring of the Rise and Modern Dry Fly Code, and Ernest Schwiebert, author of a host of books including Trout and Remembrances of Rivers Past.

Marinaro and Schwiebert were both strong-willed and eccentric men, but were prodigious angling geniuses and their contribution to angling literature resonates strongly to this day.

As a schoolboy I used to save all my money to buy American fly-fishing classics that I found in bargain bins and the back shelves of fishing stores around the country.

Under-valued and under-appreciated by New Zealand anglers I often purchased these books for peanuts and still have them in my library.

This trip I was able to show Barry some of the books and he was able to explain points of interest and recall memories of Marinaro, Schwiebert and many others.

Barry Beck is a living link to the history of modern fly fishing as we know it today, and the chance to discuss and learn more about the history of our sport is priceless to me and far more  important than any trout we may ever catch together.

Having said that, though, catching trout together is still pretty important, with Cathy undoubtedly being North America’s most photographed female fly angler. Casting a mean line, she can foot it with any angler in the world and has been a fly-fishing machine since she met Barry more than 30 years ago.

Barry, of course, is a fly fisherman’s fly fisher and it is a pleasure to watch him work a feeding trout. Barry and Cathy rate New Zealand as one of their favourite destinations, Barry especially so. He values the wild places, clear waters and sight fishing for wary brown trout.

He acknowledges that the fishing is difficult, challenging, and so often just downright frustrating, but he relishes the chance to explore new places and capture exciting new images with his beloved cameras.

At the end of their New Zealand fishing odyssey I was tasked with a few more fishing days and getting them back to Nelson Airport.

On the last day, I took them to Mirfin country on the West Coast’s Rough River where generations of the Mirfin family cleared farmland out of rainforest. They appreciated the history, the stories, and the steep track and rope down into the river. After lunch, and after one of their rod tips being bitten in half by a curious cow, they both finished with a fine trout each on their last cast in New Zealand waters for 2010.

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