ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 12, 1997 TAG: 9701130145
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: JUDY SCHWAB SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Beneath the polished wood floors, the furnishings and the art in Harry and Elissa Steeves' home in Blacksburg, is Harry's "ready room."
A biology professor at Virginia Tech by weekday, Steeves' alter ego is served by his basement ready room where he keeps all his hunting, and more importantly, his fly-fishing paraphernalia.
In addition to the usual gun safe, fly-tying workbench, decoys, waders, rods, and animal parts, the ready room contains a stack of hunting and fishing clothes, the elbows bent and waiting for Steeves' arms to enter.
These are the kind of clothes that have ended marriages. These are the clothes sportsmen cherish, including an Italian felt fedora that belonged to Steeves' grandfather and "fits like a charm." The seal of tradition hangs next to the door, an old crayoned note with a fishing fly attached - to Steeves from his son, Charles.
Steeves has been fly fishing and tying flies since he was a boy. He has his grandfather's cane pole used on a fishing trip to the Catskills in 1900. In the upstairs hallway are framed flies tied by Steeves' grandfather and father as well as an award his son won for fly tying before he became a teen-ager and moved on to other sports. The beauty of this tradition is that having learned these skills early, Charles will be able to return to fishing and tying when he's older.
Steeves' flies are available through L.L. Bean, Orvis, and a lot of fly-fishing shops in the country. He designs flies for Umpqua in Oregon, perhaps the largest wholesaler of fishing equipment in the world.
Steeves is also a fly-fishing guide for Orvis, and has written a book on fly fishing, specifically using terrestrials, which are land-based insects such as ants or beetles or moths.
"Terrestrials get in [the streams] by accident," Steeves explained, "but there are so many that a lot get in, and trout are opportunistic feeders."
Steeves began to design his own flies years ago. He was particularly happy one day when he discovered a shiny piece of thread caught in the living room rug. It was a snippet of something his wife had been using in a needlepoint project. The thread was just what he needed for a particular fly he was tying. It worked so well
he contacted the manufacturer to let them know what a good deal this material was. Now the manufacturer pays his way to fishing shows where he demonstrates fly tying.
It was at one of these shows that he met Ed Koch, a nationally recognized expert on fly fishing. He is also the co-author of Steeves' book, "Terrestrials, a Modern Approach to Fishing and Tying with Synthetic and Natural Materials."
Years before the two men met, Steeves had been sending Koch his terrestrial flies, hoping the legend would try them and respond. One of Koch's friends spotted the kind of flies Steeves was tying and yelled, "Hey, Ed, here's the guy who sent you those beetles."
Steeves and Koch hit it off and began fishing together. However, it was years before Koch finally tried the "beetles" Steeves had sent him, and they did extremely well. Koch was so impressed he wrote an article about it. Shortly after that they agreed to write "Terrestrials," with Steeves producing 95 percent of it at Koch's request.
The book is a wonderful mix of science, craft, art, ethics and good stories. More than 30 years of teaching biology shows up in the clear explanations of the various insect orders.
The craft of tying flies is addressed with tying instructions so clear they could be recipes (material sources are included). The art is evident in both the illustrations (photos, line art and drawings produced by four local artists) and in the anecdotes spread throughout this 262-page hardback.
The ethics flow through the stories Steeves writes of his early fishing experiences with his father and of adult fishing trips where decisions not to fish reflected respect for honorable animals and for laws no one would have known were broken.
Next year Steeves will cut back on teaching, way back, to devote more time to fly fishing, designing and writing - all the fun stuff that the ready room represents. His clients for fishing trips come to him through Orvis in Roanoke. Clients pay for a day of fishing plus lunch. They don't pay by the fish they catch.
"Some couldn't catch their butts with a short rod and a shark hook," Steeves laughed. He added that he's been lucky to have clients who either had fishing skill or, lacking that, plenty of enthusiasm.
``Terrestrials" is available in downtown Blacksburg at the Booksmith on Draper Road. To hire a fly-fishing guide in the area, call Orvis in Roanoke.
Excerpt from 'Terrestrials'
By Harrison R. Steeves III and Ed Koch; published by Stackpole Books:
I don't remember exactly what month it was. It was sometime during the summer, prior to what could really be termed "hopper season." It was more than ten years ago, but I remember what happened as though it were yesterday.
The fish, a nice brown of about 14 inches, was holding in a pool formed by two small spring creeks feeding the upper Provo River, not far from Salt Lake City. One of these small spring creeks entered the pool through a large, galvanized drainpipe over which a farmer had built a road to the adjacent field. Stu Asahina was my partner that day, and we stood back from the bank concealed by a stand of willows.
"What's he taking?" Stu whispered
"I have no idea," I whispered back.
At this point it dawned on me that we always seemed to whisper in situations like this, and I wondered why. The fish couldn't possibly hear us, but it just seemed appropriate under the circumstances.
"What do you have on?" asked Stu.
"An elk-hair caddis."
"Well, you found him, you try him," said Stu.
We stood behind the willows and watched. It wasn't going to be easy. The currents from the two springs met and formed the sort of swirly-twirly wash that you have bad dreams about. Besides that, in order to reach the fish, you had to crouch behind the willows, cast blind, and throw a left curve to get a decent drift.
I hunkered down behind the willows and missed the first couple of casts rather badly but on the third or fourth cast managed to salvage something fairly presentable.
Three casts later, the fish (which had come up to take a look at the first decent drift of the fly) was back on station. It was no secret that the elk-hair caddis wasn't the fly of choice.
"OK, you go for it," I said to Stu.
Stu looked at me over the top of his glasses and gave me a nasty grin. I've seen that grin before; it's more like a smirk. He does it well.
"I know he'll take a little hopper."
"Yeah? Well, you might know he's gonna take that hopper, but I know what he's gonna do if he does!" I had it all figured out. But then, so did Stu.
"Yeah," said Stu. "He's gonna blow right up that drainpipe!"
So Stu knotted on this little Henry's Forts Hopper, hunkered down behind the willows and made a good cast. That little hopper landed about four feet in front of the fish, and the second it hit the water the brown went stiff. The hopper made about a foot of headway, and the brown became three feet of blurred fish. The instant Stu raised the rod tip, the fish went straight up the pipe and the tippet separated on the sharp edge. I'll bet Stu had that fish on for maybe, just maybe, one second!
We looked at each other and grinned.
"It's nice to call all the shots right every now and then," said Stu.
"Yeah," I agreed, "even if you only fool them. Sometimes landing them isn't that important."
"Terrestrials" is available at the Booksmith on Draper Road in Blacksburg.
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Harrys Steeves works on one of his famous fishingby CNBflies in his Blacksburg workshop (ran on NRV-1). 2. Harry Steeves
(right) works under a bright spotlight and uses magnifying glasses
to help him better see his small creations. 3. Steeves works with
the wings of one of his flies as a small vise holds the hook tight
(below). 4. The flies Steeves has designed come in a variety of
shapes and sizes. color.