Yesterday on the McKenzie was special. John O’Hurley was in town with
Spamalot and we had an adventure that was a “throw back” to fishing
the McKenzie fifty years ago.
Fly fishing from a wooden McKenzie style drift boat, with the finest
hand-crafted Bellinger bamboo rods, silk line, and dry flies was
extremely challenging… and extremely cool!! For those of you on the
“mac” yesterday, you know it was a day meant for nymphing – but we
stayed on top anyway and managed to catch a few fish.
John is a smooth caster and hit every spot with touch… even in the
wind! He is a genuinely nice guy and had a great appreciation for the
river, the history and the equipment… and John knows equipment (he
admired your great work, Chet).
It was an unforgettable and authentic fly fishing day with an
authentic fly fisherman, actor, writer, businessman, and great guy –
John O’Hurley.
GH
I met John years ago when I lived and worked in the Reno/Tahoe area. He was in town for a charity golf event. I escorted both John and Ed Marinaro (of Hill Street Blues fame) to Sammy’s Showroom at Harrah’s for a late show. During the show a group of women started screaming “It’s him! It’s him!”. Knowing that they wanted autographs, I reached back and accepted a handful of the large postcards that were always on the showroom tables for that very purpose. When I reached over to hand them to Ed, the gals shouted “No, No!” which kind of ticked Ed off. Then I tried to pass them to John. That resulted in the same answer. Puzzled, I looked back at them and they all said “You! You! We never see you out in public anymore!” Now Ed was really ticked, but John thought it was hysterical. He even showed me what to write and how to sign an “autograph” so we wouldn’t offend the ladies. Every time John came back to town we would laugh about that night. To this day I have absolutely no idea just who they thought I was.