in defense of Tim

rw wrote:

Tim has a point of view about C&R. It's a pretty extreme point of view,
and not one I share wholeheartedly by any means, but it has a logical
consistency, even if he does undermine his case with some bogus
factoids. It's made me think about what I'm doing.

At least 95% of the fishing I do is C&R. I might conceivably catch 30 to
50 fish in a day if I worked at it (on a really good day), but that
"score" wouldn't reflect the quality of the fishing, and I'm not
interested in it. I like the memory of one or two good fish hooked and
landed in a perfect spot, maybe with a difficult presentation, where I
could actually foresee the whole thing playing out ahead of time. That
is trout fishing Nirvana to me.

Think about it, C&R ROFF fishermen. Don't count fish. Quit and be
satisfied once you feel good about the outing. Enjoy the scenery. Take
some photos. That's a point where Tim is correct, I believe, but he
doesn't express it in those terms.

The previous paragraph describes a fishing trip for me pretty well.
Maybe it's because I don't get out as much as I'd like (and if this
fricking drought keeps up, I may never get out down here), but the
planning, tying flies, packing, traveling, etc. are all a big part of
the experience.

Then when I'm on the water I force myself to slow down and take in
everything around me. On one trip I adopted the approach that when I
came to a nice-looking spot, I would sit down by the water, soak in the
surroundings, get my camera out and snap a few pictures or have a cig
before I made a cast.

It added to the experience, and I think I caught more fish that way.
In this skinny water with spooky fish, I believe I gave them time to
re-adjust and get comfortable if they detected any movement on my part
when I approached the water.

However, I do count fish ... the *first* one. After that, it's all
gravy, IMHO.


Chuck Vance