“In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles.
Walked by rivers through deep green grass,
Entered cities of boiling red dust.
Tried drugs, but couldn’t make Immortal;
Read books and wrote poems on history.
Today I am back at Cold Mountain:
I’ll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.”
This poem, written by the poet Han-shan and translated by poet and essayist Gary Snyder, in many ways exemplifies the life of bamboo rod builder, author and fly fisher Jerry Kustich.
In his latest book, Jerry looks back on his life that began within a bicycle ride of a polluted Niagara River, followed at 18 by eight years in the seminary before settling in the little Montana town of Twin Bridges, where he honed his skills as a craftsman of exquisite bamboo fly rods.
Having met Jerry while we could still string a tippet through the eye of a hook without benefit of glasses and wade rivers without need of a staff, I can think of nothing more interesting than spending an evening seated across the woodstove from this extraordinary angler. The next best thing is to spend a winter’s evening reading Bamboo Days.
Like Han-shan, Jerry has roamed “hundreds and thousands of miles” while hiking through “green grass” and “boiling red dust” to cast his flies of feather and fur in countless waters both far and near. Along the way, he’s had a few laughs, made a number of lasting friendships, encountered deep love, experienced tragedy and in doing so acquired an almost mystical belief in the healing powers of the natural world.
Jerry has written four books. Now, as he looks back from his “Cold Mountain,” this exceptional angler shares his experiences in Bamboo Days.
Jerry’s soft-spoken (when not battling for environmental causes), down-to-earth and unassuming manner comes through in his latest effort as he reflects on a life spent close to water. A life that took him from his early days casting worms from a cement dock in New York State to the rivers and streams of Montana and from there to the newly opened and still unexplored rivers of Kamchatka, on to the saltwater estuaries and freshwater trout streams of Maryland, with a stop at Key West and a detour in Mexico, all the while casting to trout, salmon, bass and any other species of fish willing to play tag with his flies.
Bamboo Days is more than a book about fly fishing. It’s a clarion call to carry on the fight against corporate greed and political corruption that continues to threaten our cold-water and marine fisheries.
In the end, I found it to be a thoughtfully written reflection on a life well lived not for money or fame but for the simple satisfaction found in casting a finely crafted fly rod to a wild fish wherever they might be found.
Bamboo Days can be purchased online at www.midcurrent.com or by emailing Jerry at booboy724@gmail.com.