In Defense of Supinski

In Matt Supinski's Steelhead Dreams: The Theory, Method, Science and Madness of Great Lakes Steelhead Fishing (Amato: Portland, 2001), a syncretistic attitude towards fishing is described. Supinski's pragmatism is evident in his utilization of all techniques for steelheading and it is here that purists have claimed, in rather shrill terms I may add, that Matt Supinski doesn't understand what it is to fish a hole thoroughly and so is thereby forced into a rhapsody of jumbled techniques. Nowhere else in his text is Supinski more open to chis charge of 'eclecticism' and impurity than in his statement on "Fusion Steelheading" (p. 49). Here Supinski writes,

"as far as the motion without movement frontier is concerned--and my yearning to eliminate all boundaries in presentation to maximize steelheading success--I have come up with the notion of fusion steelheading. With this technique, I am aware that I am going out on a limb and begging for criticism since many purists scoff at this approach, not considering it to be fly fishing. If you take a good look at the various methods used in big-game fly fishing today, you will constantly see barriers being broken. Are large, glass-body, Mylar, epoxy baitfish streamers really flies or duplicates of Rapala lures? Are shooting heads really fly lines? Do anti-reverse and large-arbor reels replicate big game trolling reels? I believe tradition is nothing more than one's subjective feelings or orientation decided upon for the sake of personal emotional gratification. We are constantly breaking tradition each time a new product comes out in the high-tech fishing business." (p. 49)

This is a remarkable statement in itself. Here tradition is thought to be nothing more than ones subjective feelings ...for the sake of personal emotional gratification. Excellent. And in turn it allows us to make an important distinction. There is a fundamental distinction between fishing and casting. A flycaster is somebody who likes to cast lines and there are champions of this craft. But flycasters also typically hold up in their mind's eye an idol world of images of what salmon or steelhead fishing on the fly "should be". And they try to uphold that image of things in all of their consumption and fishing practices. That is fine, so long as it works. And, indeed, a great many flycasters are fishermen, but here is the point: steelhead fishing can be a very austere practice the point of which is to catch fish. Long hours spent over cold rivers teaches you not to worship idols of personal gratification over fishing success. And this point is often overlooked by the idolaters of purity whose fishing practice serves the idols of their own mind and not the God-gift fish itself in the stream, in its icy purity. Live and let live, but if you are about success you will find that you cannot be a purist

Supinski's fusion steelheading includes such practices as using spin cheaters, egg omelets, streamers with krystal flash, flashabou, bright marabous, egg patterns, hexs, etc. And I think his casting is unique. But, to make a comparison with Bruce Lee, the great martial artist and philosopher who wrote "absorb what is useful". We can see in Matt Supinski's syncretism, the pragmatic attitude. And that is the way to be successful in true fishing. Are we not all guilty of that?