Heightened Awareness
There are many reasons to go trout fishing. I want to focus upon one that, for me, has always been particularly compelling. I go trout fishing to sharpen my senses--to heighten awareness.
Living in the modern age exacts a high price. One of the things it does is dull our senses. The constant barrage of stimuli invariably overwhelms our senses. In order to cope, we go into sensitivity withdrawal. It is a cruel price. Fortunately, it is one that also can be overcome by just a few hours spent streamside.
Awareness heightening begins almost the moment I step into the eternal flow of a river. Immediately I am conscious of the invertebrate and vertebrate life in the water around me. But it doesn’t stop there. It extends to the mink furtively scampering along the bank, to the cerulean warbler flitting among the maples, and encompasses the throaty retort of a frog in a distant pond. As if by magic, I begin to hear and see better, my olfactory nerve seems to begin to work again…and, yes, John Volker was right “whisky tastes better from a tin cup” at streamside. Moreover, I find that I can think more clearly when I’m out fishing. I often take a business or personal problem to the river, and allow my mind to fully focus on the problem; something which would not have happened in the din of the city! I am usually surprised at how quickly answers come to me while I’m streamside!
The next time you begin to feel that your senses are deadened by the noise and bustle of modern life, drop everything and go fishing. See how soon your senses--all of them--begin to clear. Stay at the river until you let the healing power of nature purge your system of the many maladies of modernity. Only then, go back to the demands of the moment. But remember the good news…when stress and mental fatigue start to deaden your senses again, it’s time to go fishing! Fishing, far from an excuse, thus becomes a joyful necessity!