The Redding Record-Searchlight just ran a profile of Dunsmuir’s Joe Kimsey - the same Joe who can be found at the Ted Fay Fly Shop most days, cracking wise and tying flies.
I wrote about a special fishing trip I took with Joe last season, and the writer of the Searchlight piece seems to have pegged Joe pretty good:
For a quarter-century, working out of the Ted Fay Fly Shop, Kimsey taught city folks - doctors, lawyers and the mostly affluent folks drawn to the sport - the art of fly-fishing. He was able to teach them the basics, he brags, in about 30 minutes. In the course of those years, he dragged more than one floundering fisherman out of the water and had his share of “prima donnas” who seemed to know more about fishing than their guide.
Kimsey’s line of work also required diplomatic skills, an ability to handle people as well as slippery fish.
There’s a relaxed jocularity about Kimsey. It’s easy to see him sharing stories and meals with near-strangers on a fishing adventure. All those years working in the great outdoors, waiting for the fish to bite, seem to have given him an inner peace; there’s always a half-smile playing about his face.
It’s worth the few minutes it’ll take to read it.
See you in the papers, Tom Chandler.
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