Yesterday Afternoon

Well some of my replies to others in this thread have already admitted that
I somewhat agree ...discriptions stand the best chance of wide understanding

but .. I'm bored and have some time to kill, so,
I say "horse pucky" G

To talk about things we need to name them .... you can call the big scary
bug a "Michigan Caddis" a "big yellow humpy" a "Hexagenia"
or a "big scary bug" All those will work for some people.

The very fact that you got from Hexagenia to "big yellow humpy" proves that
the Latin word DID convey information from my typing fingers to your
scanning eyes and you DO have enough "entomology" knowledge about that bug
to use the Latin.

I have no way of knowing whether you would have gotten from "Michigan
Caddis" to "big yellow humpy" but the idea that you have to look at a bugs
gonads under a microscope to consistently call it by the same name is far
from accurate, and further from what I'm saying.

I have been in Polly Rosborough's house when he "described" Hexagenia as
"Big Floppy Yellow May" .... I have been in Craig Matthews shop when he
told a customer that asked what fly to use that a PMD was a "big yellow
mayfly"
..... Hexs and PMDs are at least as close as #8 woolybuggers and #18
Griffiths Gnats G ( which ain't really that different, are they ?)

As I read your post my phone rang and the phone is near a book shelf with FF
books on it ..... I was drawn to notice that at least 90% of those books
have some Latin in them that the authors must have felt helped them
communicate.

I grabbed the first one I noticed that seemed the LEAST "high
tech... " How to Fish from Top to Bottom" by Sid Gordon (1955 )and randomly
( no **** now, I kid you not, it was random and I nearly fell over, myself )
opened it to page 319

I quote

"Dry Flies
(Ephemeroptera )

The Keene Mayfly
( Hexagenia )"

followed by a recipe .... so since many guys want to refer to bugs by
pattern names .... our Hex could be called a Keene Mayfly, too g ( honest
it was random ) and obviously Gordon included the Latin for some reason...
to "impress" me? or to inform me?

I think that to a large extent the demographics and needs of "a group of
fishermen" varies across different parts of the country, and water types.
When I fish small mountain freestone streams in the Sierra I carry 4 or 5
patterns and decide what to fish based on my mood, ... finding the fish is
the game, they eat whatever goes by.

But where I fish most, MOST conversations between fishermen or
fishermen and shop clerks revolve around the bugs, a one level or another
and MOST include some Latin words. It's rare to met a FFer ... that is
catching fish ... that doesn't clearly understand the bugs and use some
Latin in his conversation on places like the Fork or Silver Creek.

Calling a "Speckled Wing Dun" a "callibaetis" doesn't require more intense
study of entomology ... you still have to have enough practical knowledge of
species characteristics to CONSISTENTLY apply the same name to the same bug
....regardless of the name you use.

Latin names are just names, names that make research easier. IF SOMEDAY
you care to know that a Hex is a burrower and needs a silt bottom .. knowing
it's a Hexagenia will lead to that info faster than "Keene's Mayfly"

Last point I offer to ponder ( and I'm not arguing g, I agree that the
Latin doesn't suit you and yours) you said "the vast majority
of folks who are passionate about the fishing..." and my instant reaction
was ... "I only started learning about the bugs when my interest grew to the
level of 'passion' ... before that I just wanted to catch fish"

I think you just hate Latin g maybe you were forced to study it and
didn't want to? maybe you tried to eat too much of it at one sitting and
got sick g? or more likely, I'd bet, it just doesn't fit you image of
what fishin' should be

-- --------
"Fishing should be a ceremony that reaffirms our place in the natural world
and helps us resist further estrangement from our origins."
-- Thomas McGuane--
-------------

That comes as close as any single sentence I've found to summing up my idea
of fishing .... a search for greater interaction with Nature .... and a
chance to get away from "man's-****"
..... and frankly it ****es the crap outta me when
guys show up dragging all their "man-****" with them, cell phones, gps, high
tech underwear, yada yada yada .... I just want to scream "Why the ****
don't you just stay in your little air conditioned room and jack off your
harddrive, you dildo ?"

Perhaps ? ( just a guess, I'm likely wrong ) your image of fishin' is as a
"good ole boy" activity, a different kind of return to "roots" and "fancy
soundin' Latin" words somehow offend and conflict with that image and make
you mad in the same way?


PS I know my distaste for the SSS crowd is largely irrational ..... but I
still dislike them .... and I think it's fine if hearing Latin while fishing
is like chalk screeched across a blackboard to your ears ... YOUR fishing
should be what YOU want it to be

End of boring time wasting postG