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.
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2 comments:
Gov'na must be on some heavy meds.
Nah, actually I say "amen, can I get a witness" to this long and lengthy lecture. Tis true boys, there "needs be opposition in all things". This media blitz offers just the titilating end result, not the long suffering hours that truly make the life of a fisherman.
I think fishing especially fly fishing is different to all. Some days it is just about guitar riffs, others it is just about being in the moment, some days it is about just breathing and becoming one with self. For each fisher that finds themselves intreanched in the addiction it means a different lesson in life.
I say bully to the rock and roll fishers, and bully to the mundane grind, and bully to fly fishing whatever it is that time out.
...but what do I know I am just a farmer.
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