Chief and Uncle Joe

I caught my first fish in the Juniata River in Bedford Co. while fishing with my great uncle. My great uncle was a great outdoorsman. One of his favorite pastimes was hunting snowshoe hares in Elk County. I was lucky to inherit most of his fly fishing tackle. Amongst this inheritance, were some peculiar dry flies. The wings were constructed of hair obtained from the feet of those hares bagged in Elk County. I suspect that these flies were fashioned long before those made popular by Fran Betters.

Many years after spending summer days at my great uncle’s riverside cabin, it was me who would take him fishing in his waning years. His favorite stream was Spring Creek. We would make the drive from Johnstown to Bellefonte in my ’68 Mustang. I recall one such trip. We arrived at the Paradise early in the morning. Uncle Joe could not get out of the car. He probably was 82, a bit overweight with many fused joints. I was patient, I tried lifting his legs out, tried pulling him out from his shoulders, nothing seemed to work. I didn’t know what to do next. Then I realized that he still had on his seatbelt.

Uncle Joe was rather pissed and he didn’t say much until he hooked a rather large brown under the foot bridge. “Go get my goddamn net in car you moron!” he shouted. He didn’t say much more the rest of the day as I recall.

Uncle Joe is sadly missed. I recall his stories every time I reach for a new leader. I carry his aluminum leader tin. His flies remain unused, especially the “Unusuals”.