It’ll cut into his time allotted to fly fishing, but it’s nice to know that one of our own will have a figurative finger in the pot. Yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer story about G. Edward DeSeve’s appointment as special adviser to the president and vice president to oversee the federal stimulus program ended on a high note:

A fly-fishing enthusiast, DeSeve once said he would go “anywhere there is a trout in the water.”

Yesterday, he said, “I’ll try to make time, but this certainly will cut into my fly-fishing.”

It’s good to see at least a mildly positive spin on fly fishing and government leaders, instead of exasperation and anger.

The fact that he’s a fly fisherman might not be the best recommendation for one charged with such duties by an administration that has stressed the need for truthfulness transparency and accountability. However, that’s countered with the knowledge that Mr. DeSeve quit his City of Philadelphia finance job in 1974 “…rather than follow then-Mayor Frank L. Rizzo’s instructions to balance Philadelphia’s budget on numbers that to him didn’t add up.”

It makes perfect sense to give a fly fisherman leadership of the Obama administration’s efforts to implement the Recovery Act, including the distribution of $787 billion in stimulus funds. Fly fisherman have used stimulus packages for years.

The Stimulator dry fly is a large, go-to dry fly, particularly when you’re fly fishing during a big stone fly hatch or salmon fly hatch. Or when you aren’t catching and don’t know what to throw at ‘em. Does that sound like another type of stimulus package?

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“Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it.” — Ed Zern