A Celebration of Being
When I started trout fishing, I thought the angling enterprise was about catching. And the success of a day's fishing was judged by the weight of the creel. But that was long ago, and I don't think that any more. So what has trout fishing become for me now? That is what this brief piece is about.
Like most things in life, there has been a metamorphosis in my thinking about angling. Now it is the experience itself which is valued not the results. As I stand in living waters, I am conscious of the fact that why I am there has less to do with hooking trout than with landing memories, in marveling to the emergence of a hatch, in thrilling to the flight of swallows above the water, in feeling that special connectedness with the river itself. And when I am fortunate enough to land a lovely spotted trout, it becomes merely another enchanting interlude in the experience, rather than the focus of it all. And, by avoiding focusing merely upon catching fish, I am more likely not to miss one of nature's miracles being revealed in my presence.
Now I find myself spending more time sitting on the bank with my feet in the water composing poetry than casting for trout. For it is poetry which is central to my being, and fishing becomes a wonderful pretext for being streamside where I have found that poetry abounds as nowhere else. Fishing has become more of a means to an end, rather than the end itself.
And, if I were obliged to try to summarize the essence of that means, I would say that angling has become a celebration of being--a celebration of life adorned with fishing vest, waders, and fly rod. Given my conception of the angling enterprise, it is really difficult to have a bad day trout fishing!
And so I head streamside at every conceivable opportunity in order to try to understand the messages the river conveys as poetry, to know beauty in the special way perhaps known only by anglers, and to celebrate the fact that I am alive and able to participate in such an exhilarating experience.
To some, what I have written may not make sense now. For catching fish is still more important than just being present at streamside welcoming each miracle revealed. But, in time, I am confident they too will conclude that the angler's Patron Saint, Izaak Walton, has been right all along: "there is more to fishing than to catch fish" [italics my own]! Angling is, I submit, a consummate celebration of being.