It means more than talk
THERE'S A COMMON REFRAIN AMONG ANGLERS about the old time/money conundrum: When you're young you have a lot of time to fish, but not necessarily enough financial resources to get to where you want to fish. Later in life when the bank balances are a bit more in the black, you no longer have the time. It's not much different for a U.S. senator.
"Since coming to Washington, I get lots of offers to fish with people," Senator Mike Enzi began, "but I don't get many chances to take them up on their offers. Even though I get back to Wyoming most weekends, I don't have much downtime. I generally have three to five meetings a day with constituents in three to five towns. In Wyoming, towns are pretty spread out. That means a lot of time driving around. I certainly had a lot more time to fish before I got this job, but I've figured out one way to sneak in a little fishing. I have a travel rod that I always carry with me. If we're driving along a road that happens to border a trout stream, I'll try to pull over and fish for an hour here and there. I've learned that spots right along the road can be pretty good places to fish. Other anglers often ignore those spots, thinking they've been overfished, and that they'd be better served pushing further away. My roadside fishing has reinforced my commitment to using barbless hooks. It's certainly better for safely releasing fish, but it's also good for releasing constituents. During my roadside stops, passersby will pull over and approach the river to give me their opinion on one issue or another. I'm always concerned that I'll catch people on my back cast. By using barbless hooks, I figure I should be able to get the fly free from their hat or clothing before the press arrives."
The importance of barbless hooks is one lesson Senator Enzi has taken away from the river. He touched upon a few others. "I've learned a lot of patience on the water, and the need for inventiveness," he continued. "You need to be flexible in your approach, as what works one day may not work the next. That ability to be flexible certainly comes in handy in the legislative process. Fly fishing has also shown me how we sometimes try to make things more complicated than they need to be. I remember taking my son Brad up to the Bighorn Mountains when he was about five to show him how to fish. We were on a small stream, and he was flailing away. I said, "Brad, if you keep thrashing the water like that, you're not going to catch anything." Those words had hardly left my mouth before he yelled, "Dad, I got one!" It doesn't always have to be scientific and technical. This perception of fly fishing drives some people away from the sport. Sometimes it's just about learning the joys of being on the river. Fly fishing is my getaway time. I love the sound of the stream, the birds, the wind rustling through the trees. In Wyoming, there's always wind. You have to learn how to work with it if you're going to fish here."
Senator Enzi's beloved Wyoming rivers-the Snake, the North Platte, the Wind-are a long way from the Russell Office Building on C Street and Constitution Avenue. Yet there are enough fishing trappings in Senator Enzi's chambers to keep the lure of the river alive. "I have my grandfather's fly rod, my first fly reel (an automatic), my dad's creel and a Jeff Abel Measure Net, which makes it easy to see how big of a fish you caught," the Senator described. "The disadvantage of the net is that once you release the fish to grow more, it can't grow in your mind, as you've measured it! I have a few fish on the wall-a hand-carved wooden rainbow trout and a salmon fashioned from granite and soapstone-and three fly-fishing paintings. I also have a shadow box with some flies tied by a friend, Ron Hayes, whom I work with on OSHA issues. Ron had a son who died in a grain elevator accident. The flies he sent me were tied with the feathers from the last duck that his son shot." (Senator Enzi is ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.)
Occasionally, fishing opportunities do present themselves a bit closer to the Hill. "In April there's an event called the Jim Range National Casting Call," the senator explained. "It's held on the Potomac at the time when the shad are running. Members of the House and Senate have a chance to go fishing and learn about fisheries management issues. One year, Lefty Kreh was giving casting lessons on the grass by the river. I saw him cast fifty feet with just the top fourteen inches of a rod. Another year, the event timing hit the shad run perfectly. Everyone who was out there was getting six or eight fish an hour-that's about all you can land in an hour, as they fight hard. Some House members missed a vote. Since that time, organizers have tried to schedule the Casting Call near the peak of the run."
Though Senator Enzi politely declines most of the fishing offers he receives, one occasionally comes along that's simply too good to refuse. "I had always wanted to be on ESPN when I was younger," he recalled, "but I guess I wasn't athletic enough. A few years back, the network contacted me to see if I would be willing to film a flyfishing piece with them. I said that if they'd shoot it in Wyoming, I'd do it. We got to a spring creek I know with the camera crew, and the trout were feeding like crazy on the surface. The director asked me to pose by the pickup truck and explain the day's fishing. I said, 'No, you don't understand. The fish are jumping now!' But we ended up doing it his way. When I got down to the water, the fish were still feeding. On my first cast, I hooked a twenty-one-inch cutthroat-good size for a cutthroat. The morning continued that way. We were scheduled to shoot for two days, but by noon on day one we had everything we needed and they were ready to quit. I wanted to keep fishing.
"Sometimes when I'm back in Wyoming and stop into a restaurant for breakfast or lunch, a constituent will come up and say 'I saw you on TV this morning.' I'll ask 'What was I talking about?' They'll say 'You weren't talking, you were fishing.'
"That counts for a lot more in Wyoming than talk."
ABOUT THE ANGLER
MICHAEL B. ENZI was sworn in as Wyoming's twentieth United States Senator on January 7, 1997. He's made a name on Capitol Hill for his unique way of breaking down party lines and working across the aisle. Senator Enzi believes that people can agree on 80 percent of the issues 80 percent of the time and if they leave the other 20 percent out they can get a lot done. With that mentality he has turned one of the most contentious Senate committees (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) into one of the most productive. Before joining the U.S. Senate, Senator Enzi served two terms as mayor of Gillette, Wyoming, three terms as state representative, and a term as state senator. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and taught high school Sunday school class for more than ten years. Senator Enzi's love for Wyoming grew as he became an Eagle Scout. He has been honored as a Distinguished Eagle by Scouts and Significant Sig by Sigma Chi Fraternity. He is an avid hunter, fly fisher, bicyclist, and reader. Senator Enzi is married and has three children and five grandchildren. His favorite trout stream is Wyoming's Wind River.
