我的發明改變了飛釣 釣魚更有樂趣

My father was one of the first people to introduce fly-fishing to the Bahamas. He was a fishing guide for men such as Joseph Kennedy, the father of president John F Kennedy, and Ernest Hemingway. I was seven years old when Ernest fished with us. He was a lovely man. As a fisherman, you couldn’t beat him. He didn’t ask the fish to bite, he made ’em bite. I Picked up a few tricks from him.

我父親是最早把飛釣引入巴哈馬的那批人之一。他曾爲美國約翰•肯尼迪(John F Kennedy)之父約瑟夫•肯尼迪(Joseph Kennedy)和歐內斯特•海明威(Ernest Hemingway)等人做過釣魚嚮導。海明威和我們一起釣魚的時候，我只有7歲。他是個討人喜歡的人。在釣魚方面，他還是個無人能敵的高手。他不是求着魚咬鉤，而是讓它們自動咬鉤。我從他那兒學到了幾招。

I was born on Grand Cay, Abaco, in 1936. When I was eight, I became a fishing guide myself. My father sent me out on the beach with clients because I knew where all the fish were. Soon he started trusting me with the boat, and as a young boy I was guiding grown men on the saltwater flats of Abaco, fishing for bonefish, barracuda, permit and tarpon.

我1936年出生於阿巴科(Abaco)的Grand Cay。8歲的時候，我自己也成爲了一名釣魚嚮導。父親先是讓我去海灘爲客戶做嚮導，因爲我知道各種魚在哪裏。很快，他開始放心地讓我和客戶一起出海，還是小男孩的我帶着成年人在阿巴科的鹹水淺海區釣北梭魚、梭魚、大鰺魚和大海鰱。

In 1968, I opened Charlie’s Haven on Andros Island, a fishing lodge I built by hand with a few scraps of wood and steel. The baseball player Ted Williams became a client of mine. So did Jack Nicklaus, the champion golfer. Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish UN secretary-general, fished with me for 10 years before he died in that plane crash. At the same time I was working as a chef and resident musician at the Lighthouse Club in nearby Fresh Creek. I cooked, fished and played calypso on the guitar.

1968年，我在安德羅斯島(Andros Island)上開了一家釣魚小屋——“Charlie’s Haven”（查理的避風港），小屋是我用幾塊木料和一些鋼材手工建造的。棒球手特德•威廉斯(Ted Williams)成了我的客戶。還有高爾夫冠軍傑克•尼克勞斯(Jack Nicklaus)。瑞典籍的前聯合國(UN)祕書長達格•哈馬舍爾德(Dag Hammarskjöld)不幸在飛機失事中喪生之前，也和我一起釣了10年的魚。在做釣魚嚮導的同時，我還在Fresh Creek附近的Lighthouse Club做大廚和駐場音樂家。我烹飪、釣魚、用吉他彈卡利普索小調。

One day in the Late 1960s, the prime minister of the Bahamas, Lynden Pindling, came to Andros with Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada. They wanted me to take them bonefishing. I knew we had to catch some fish.

上世紀60年代末的一天，時任巴哈馬總理的林登•平德林(Lynden Pindling)和當時的加拿大總理皮埃爾•特魯多(Pierre Trudeau)一起來到安德羅斯島。他們想讓我帶他們去釣北梭魚。我當時明白，這次我們必須得釣到魚。

I remembered that once when I was growing up, my father took a feather from a wild duck he’d shot and tied it on a hook and gave it to me. I went down to the beach and right away I caught a bonefish with it. In the water the fly looked like a minnow, so I realised that bonefish must like minnows. Using a chicken feather as the body and some beads from a military ID tag as the eyes, I tied a fly that looked exactly like a minnow. The next day, the two prime ministers got their bonefish — and I had invented the famous “Crazy Charlie” bonefish fly, which revolutionised the sport of saltwater fly-fishing.

我想起童年時期，有一次我父親從他射下來的一隻野鴨身上拔下一根羽毛，把羽毛系在魚鉤上遞給我。我走下海灘，立刻就用它釣到了一條北梭魚。在水中，這種假餌看起來就像是小魚一樣，我當時就意識到北梭魚一定喜歡吃小魚。於是我用一根雞毛做假餌的主體，用軍籍牌上的一些珠子做眼睛，製作了一個看起來和小魚一模一樣的假餌。第二天，兩位總理釣到了北梭魚，而我也就此發明了著名的“瘋狂查理”(Crazy Charlie)北梭魚假餌，這個發明讓鹹水飛釣運動發生了革命性的變化。

Later, I guided two men from a fly-fishing company in California. They took my fly back to the US and a version was made of it. I originally called it the “Nasty Charlie” but they changed the name. Today there are hundreds of variations of the “Crazy Charlie”. The fly has made millions of dollars for the fishing industry but I’ve never received any compensation.

後來，我爲加利福尼亞州一家飛釣公司的兩名員工做過嚮導。他們將我的假餌帶回美國，並根據這種假餌製作了一種不同的版本。我原本給這種假餌取名“危險的查理”(Nasty Charlie)，不過他們後來把名字改了。現在有數百種不同版本的“瘋狂查理”。這種假餌爲釣魚業創造了數百萬美元的收入，但我本人從未獲得任何酬勞。

I’m not bitter about it. I’ve had a blessed life. I’m 78 years old but feel like I’m 28, and I’m the father of 15 sons and nine daughters. That’s what happens when all you do is fish, cook and play music. Now, with my bad eyes, I’m no longer guiding but I’m working on more killer bonefish flies.

對此我並不感到不平。我已經度過了非常幸福的一生。我今年78歲了，感覺自己還像是28歲的小夥子。我有15個兒子和9個女兒。如果你一輩子只釣魚、烹飪和彈琴，也會像我一樣的。現在我眼神不太好了，不再做嚮導的工作，但我在努力研製更有效的北梭魚假餌。

My son and I are starting a fly-fishing university to teach young Bahamians. The sport isn’t really a part of our culture. It’s just so expensive — it’s a sport for kings and queens. But the young folks are getting into it. Once our university is up and running, we’ll train them not only how to fly-fish but in other aspects of eco-tourism too, like sea kayaking, bird watching, snorkelling and deep-sea fishing.

我和我兒子正在開辦一所飛釣大學，教巴哈馬年輕人飛釣。這項運動其實並不是我們文化的一部分。飛釣的花費實在太高了——有錢人才玩得起。但年輕人正慢慢地愛上這項運動。飛釣大學開辦起來以後，我們不僅要教他們怎麼飛釣，還要提供生態旅遊的其他方面的培訓，比如海上皮划艇、觀鳥、浮潛和深海釣魚。

Our main thrust will be conservation. We have incredible natural resources in the Bahamas — the third largest reef in the world and 20 miles of ocean flats — but unless we use it in a sustainable way, it’ll be destroyed by the typical tourism model of huge hotels and cruise ships that tear up the mangroves.

我們的主要目的將是環境保護。巴哈馬有極爲豐富的自然資源，這裏有世界第三大珊瑚礁和綿延20英里的淺海，但我們必須用一種可持續的方式加以利用，否則由大酒店和會破壞紅樹林的遊輪組成的典型旅遊模式，會讓這一切遭遇滅頂之災。

We want fly-fishing to take root here, and for Bahamians to be better stewards of the land, so that they really become empowered.

我們想要飛釣在這裏生根，也希望巴哈馬人能更好地管理這片土地，這樣他們才能真正成爲這裏的主人。