Fishing to Learn
I read most angling advertisements with a mixture of skepticism and amusement. "Learn to fly fish in just three days," one confidently promises. Never mind that it has taken me five decades to become a moderately-proficient fly caster. But my goal is not to debunk the exaggerated claims of some schools of angling. Rather I want to focus my efforts upon an examination of the interrelationship between learning and fishing.
Admittedly, my perspective on the subject of learning and fishing flies in the face of most contemporary opinion. For I am less interested in learning to fish, than in going fishing in order to further my learning. Perhaps that is a product of the fact that I regard the experience as more important than the results! For me, a good day streamside may not involve the catching of a single fish. Some of my best days found me more interested in "learning what nature had to teach" than trying to catch fish. I now regard catching fish as really quite incidental to the angling enterprise. I consider the landing of a good fish merely a bit of frosting on the proverbial cake. It is not the reason I frequently travel streamside. And I will admit that catching fish, upon occasion, has been a downright nuisance!
We live in an exceedingly complex world. Each of us is buffeted by a host of "imperatives" demanding attention, and we are so caught up in the process that it is difficult to find perspective to make wise decisions (personal or professional). I have found that the time I spent streamside helped give me the perspective I needed to make sense of the often-bewildering world I live in. Beyond that, each trip streamside teaches me something about myself, and, more importantly, about the natural realm I seek to integrate with.
Humankind has increasingly moved away from daily interaction with the realm of nature. It is not surprising to me that people feel increasingly alone, isolated, and angry. I attribute much of that to our living apart from nature. However, I don't recommend going to the woods unless you are of a mind to try to learn the wisdom of nature. Nature does not give of its largess easily. On the contrary, there are no instant results. However, the serious student of nature can discover insights which will immeasurably enrich his or her life. For me, angling provides the perfect pretext to immerse myself in the natural realm that I may learn much about the world I am involved with. I go fishing to learn, not to catch fish.
The beauty of "my way" is that you do not have to be a terribly adept fly caster to be successful. Nor do you have to invest a small fortune to be properly outfitted. And, perhaps best of all, you don't even have to be prepared to address the automatic (and I would argue largely irrelevant) question "what did you catch?" All you have to do to be a success is to be open to the learning experience. Nature will not fail you!
For those who are presently deterred from fly fishing because of its much-mentioned "mystique," I would urge you to take up angling that you can learn a portion of the wisdom embodied in nature. If you never catch a fish, but are given insight into yourself, your interrelationships with others, or with God, you will be an accomplished angler, indeed! And, when you are asked what you caught, you too may find immense satisfaction in saying to yourself "you'd be surprised!"