wrote


Um, "fishing" or _catching_?


mentalwanderingmode

I often make the point, and it's a valid one with me, that "fishing is just
the excuse" and enjoying the environment is my real pleasure from the
pursuit. Another thing I'm fond of repeating is that I trout fish because
"trout have such good taste in neighborhoods."


However, I can NOT say that I'd go fishing unless I expected to catch. I
do expect to catch. But, I will not bother to go out to "fish the water"
most times, unless I'm really needy at the moment .... I'm a "TroutHunter"
that is ****ed that the name is taken, already G.

I'd bet that 99% of the guys, here or elsewhere, that go fly fishing are
more serious about the need to catch than I am .... that is serious, in the
sense that they 'fish harder and longer each day" and consider numbers and
sizes caught a measure of the quality of the day, than myself.

However, I am very serious about my angling and get very irritated with
myself during my very frequent can't do anything right spells. And I
greatly enjoy the feeling of competence that comes with my rare days of good
success. A way of expressing my outlook might be, "IF I set out to catch
THAT fish, I expect to catch him or give it one hell of an effort. But, I
almost never set out to catch lots of fish, or unusually big ones, or ones I
can't find and see before casting, just THAT one currently demanding my
attention."

Clearly, big ones grab that attention a little bit more firmly, but I
totally understand something Craig Matthews told me. He told me that the
hardest he had ever fished was spending three full days trying to catch a
specific "8 inch fish" from an incredibly difficult lie on the Firehole.
He told me that when he finally fooled it he was elated in a way no 'big'
fish had every moved him because they had all been easier ... I understand.

I am FAR more likely to spend 5 hours on one fish I can't fool than 5 hours
moving along racking up the numbers ... my 'average' day is probably less
than 4 hours of away from the truck "fishing" and most of that is hunting
for a fish I want, not casting. But I have come back over and over to try
the same fish, hour after hour, day after day, many times over the years.
If the catching is good, I quickly start looking for the hardest fish to
catch. I have no real idea what the most fish I ever caught in a day was,
or even how big the biggest was ( although I remember most of the really big
ones ... if not in inches or pounds but in where and when and on what fly )


The bonefish thing looks like fishing I would enjoy ... one on one sight
fishing. But, "the rest of the day" on an island, gritty with sand,
sunburned, has zero appeal and "the rest of the day" really is a very big
part of why I fish. ...Um, I showed some 'bonefish spot' photos to my
lovely bride and her reaction was just like mine .. " That doesn't appeal to
me, I prefer the mountains." Different strokes ... which is why I
daydream about New Zealand and Argentina in March, not the tropics.

/mentalwanderingmode