David Siskind | Sunday, 1 February 2026
Yesterday I brought my practice to the river. I ran through the speys on the first big glide and then walked the concrete bank upstream, looking for my usual suspects. Mornings have been cold for a week and no one was stirring in their usual pockets, so I returned to my practice. This was an add-on to a morning session on the grass. I think I understand the double and single spey 90s. Same with snakerolls and even the snap Ts. This little project is starting to look like something a week in. Anchor placement is still haphazard and D-loop formation a little variable but I think I know why. My jump-rolls also are working. Lift-level-sweep and out - the stroke Paul re-taught me at the stern of Battleship one dark night as I cast a glow-line.
Today, I found a new gentler and kinder power-snap. Really just rotating off the fly leg. It seemed miraculous. The line traveled smoothly without additional waves. Of course this observation is part of a pattern that I realize I’ve been sharing in this space with candor but without self-awareness. It should be embarrassing to claim a new performance key every couple of weeks, only to walk away from it in two or three practices without notice or admission but my special power is a short memory and some healthy shamelessness.
Quickly acquiring sequences is not my forte. I think I would have the same problem learning dance steps. In fact, I know I would have difficulty passing the portion of Donald Trump's cognitive test he keeps bragging about. While the press pokes fun at him, I live in fear of the day that someone tests me. Paul tells me it’s the weed. I could design an experiment around that too. During my school daze my most effective study technique was to take notes on my assigned reading and even on my own notes. I should probably do that when learning a new cast from the MasterClass series.
The technique echoes my current mindfulness meditation practice. My little Vipassana journey began with the teachings of various western Buddhist monks (Goldstein, Kornfeld, Batchellor, et. al.) emphasizing taming the monkey mind, treating thoughts as passing clouds and monitoring and noting sensations and the in-and-out of the breath. I currently practice the meditation method of Jason Siff who studied in Sri Lanka. He calls it Recollection Awareness (everyone has to make a living). Thoughts are encouraged. Meditation is merely what happens when you sit down with the intention to meditate. After the sitting the experience is recalled and recorded in writing producing a draft that can be shared with a teacher or discarded. The recollective writing takes the place of noting during the sitting. Writing things down seems to set them.
So a couple of days ago, in a fit of mindfullnes, I realized that my casting practices frequently take the following path::
Read, watch or listen to instruction, understand to a greater or lesser degree what should be practiced and make a plan:
Take planned practice out to the park, knowing I have some uncertainty about the moves and their sequence but impatiently going to work - things quickly go wrong;
Find that the designed practice is based upon an erroneous understanding of either the subject or the physics of casting;
Abandon my planned practice and feel my way to something else;
The experiment leads to unexpected results forcing redesign of the ensuing practice - muddle through and improve somewhat;- Begin to question everything. Grow sad;
- Rinse and repeat.
This could either be a joy or an irritation. I’m having fun. The sequence is similar to the 12-link chain that describes the cycle of birth-dukka (misery)-death. It begins with ignorance through various aspects of perception, ideation, action, feelings and evaluation, and proceeds towards death and re-birth. The cyclic elements of my learning process, the misperceptions, failed experiments and eventual birth of new perceptions are ancient and well-described phenomena. So I think I’ll give myself a pass and will accept that THIS is how I learn.
More fun stuff:
The Department of Justice bypassed the local ADAs and magistrates who had been refusing to cooperate and got a grand jury to indict Don Lemon and arrested him. Buckle up. Moving fast.
Justice also seized the archived ballots and voting machines in Fulton County, GA. Maybe the 11780 votes are in there. Seems like a useful tactic for tuning election results.
DJT announced his pick for next Fed Chair. Kevin Warsh - Krugman says unqualified. Married to a Lauder whence came the obsession with Greenland. Friend of Epstein. Good looking.
David Brooks has quit the NYTimes. My sister will miss him (never understood that). I won’t.
Jackie’s still abroad, currently in Hanoi. Looks like a fun city. Good food.
Cheers,
David Siskind