Forest Station—a bluegrass band with angling roots in both Bozeman, Montana, and Jericho, Vermont—recently release a new song that any fly fisher can relate to. (Lines such as “I tried new flies a dozen times, and none of them seemed to work” might hit a little too close to home for some of us.) “White Whale” is about what motivates anglers to continue to stoke their obsessive fires. Check out the lyrics below.
“Some of our music is in that overlap in a Venn diagram of bluegrass and fly-fishing,” said guitarist Eli Martell-Crawford, who once worked for Simms Fishing Products. “Optimistically, we hope the tens of dollars to be made creating fly-fishing bluegrass songs and pushing them out on streaming music services is enough to get our mandolin player a new tube of Aquaseal.”
This is not the band’s first fly-fishing song. The instrumental “Hopper Dropper” (Listen here) off their debut album captures the duality of a dry fly floating on the surface and a nymph dangling in the waters below.
“White Whale” and “Hopper Dropper are available on Spotify.
White Whale
Walking down a cold freestone with the hot sun on attack
For the life of me I could not shake the monkey off my back
I tried new flies a dozen times, and none of them seemed to work
Finally, on a golden stone I felt the bastard jerk
Looking for truth on a river with no name
Down around the corner it’s burning like a flame
Losing my mind in the Rocky Mountain sun
I’ll find my white whale before this old day is done
Old hoot owl peering out from the top of a Jack Pine Tree
He told me that bad things will always come in three
The bruiser fled, he shook his head, he broke the end of my line
The owl laughed and he made me slip
It’s what I get for trying
Looking for truth on a river with no name
Down around the corner it’s burning like a flame
Losing my mind in the Rocky Mountain sun
I’ll find my white whale before this old day is done
Standing in the water with the twilight drawing near
Moonlight on the river bank and I ain’t seeing clear
By the spinner fall I made the call to never leave my post
I’ll search and drift from dusk to dawn in this river full of ghosts
Looking for truth on a river with no name
Down around the corner it’s burning like a flame
Losing my mind in the Rocky Mountain sun
I’ll find my white whale before this old day is done
Losing my mind in the Rocky Mountain sun
I’ll find my white whale before this old day is done
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