A Dose of Medicine

The 08 season in my neck of woods in only a month away- there will be plenty of good fishing days in March, question is, will I be fishing them.... my usual haughty prognostications are tempered today by a microscopic (that's smaller than a size 28 midge) bug that's got my lungs full of mucus, by head pounding and my hopes flagging. So instead of pontificating on my great expectations for the coming season, I'm going to wax philosophical (no Hans, that is not Microsoft's new operating system)...

I spent the last hour watching these cool little fishing videos on http://tv.aegmedia.com/ and although they were flashy and sexy and cut from the same clothe as virtually all the other visual displays innundating our media rich environment, after the initial excitement ebbed, I realized they didn't really capture anything, in fact they were doing fishing and fly fishing in particular a major injustice. It's not, it can't be, about 5 second flashes of monsters sucking down flys and big bent rods and whooops and hollars flashing constantly to the next scene with heady guitar riffs playing in the back ground. It's not about, it can't be about, exotic locations and strange species of giant trout... That's not fishing- that's marketing the concept of fishing to convince other fisherman that if "you aren't doing this, you aren't really fishing". Globe trotting to exotic locals and catching monsters for pictures and chest thumping (and selling gear and expeditions) is the opposite of fishing. Fishing is finding joy in the same section of stream you've fished a hundred times, slogging along on fishless days and sitting by the stream wondering where the heck they are and yet still being so glad you are there. Fishing is day in, day out, monotony and repetition, dedication and commitment. With out those deep principles, the thrill of the rise and the bend of the rod are empty. The fishing potrayed in commercialization of the past time is the Victoria Secret intended to create infactuation with an unrealistic ideal. Real fishing is love born from hours, days, and years for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer as long as you both shall live. Traver understood that, not sure these other guys do.

It's All On!! 08-

Ok, boys. It's all on for another year. Looks like some of us had a good '07, and I'll post the count for the records sake. The Gov, had 9 days out. Mule had 18 and I, Pablo had 30. Ah yes, it's business time!
I'm adding my good friend, "the Farmer" to the list. He may make it out 2 days, if he's lucky. But he's sworn off his evil ways of work and responsibility and has pledged to do better.
So here's to a good year, and Alaska coming up, so cast your bread upon the water boys, and get ready to hook 'em!
PS. Yesterday I broke down my fly-rod, and cleaned my lines. Maybe I thought I'd actually get out this winter. Each March though, is usually my first day out, so maybe I should have left it together?