The Resource
I am occasionally asked why I encourage so many people to become trout anglers. By championing the sport, am I not causing the resource to be stressed through overuse? It is a good question, and one that deserves a carefully thought out answer. I will try to give it the answer it deserves.
First of all, I encourage people to become trout anglers because I believe it is good for their soul. I believe it is a genuinely healthy enterprise--healthy for the body and, especially, for the mind. By encouraging people to become serious anglers, I feel I am doing them about as great a favor as I can. I am opening them up to an entire lifetime of learning and enchantment. It is a special gift, in my judgement. One I feel privileged to be able to make.
But there is no doubt that our rivers and streams face the peril of overuse. It is a very real problem. It is a problem which can be ameliorated by specials regulations such as no kill. However, we need to recognize that the problem is very real and very serious.
However, there is another aspect of this which I believe deserves attention. And that is simply this: many of our coldwater resources are already terribly degraded and in desperate need of immediate and long-term future attention. My thought on the matter is to get more people angling, that, in the process, they will develop an appreciation and love for the resource, and will become zealous in the protection and enhancement of those vital coldwater resources in the future. The sad truth is that there will be many political battles fought over the resource in the future, and we will need all the support we will be able to muster in order to ensure that those precious resources are passed along to future generations of Americans in good condition.
In the two places I have most recently lived, Michigan and Wisconsin, there are literally hundreds of miles of degraded streams crying out for help. We need all the able bodied men and women we can enlist to help protect and restore those rivers as prime trout water. The more people who become involved in that compelling project, the better it will be for us all.
And so, as I teach people the art of fly fishing for trout, I do so with several purposes in mind--to give them something they can enjoy for the rest of their lives. And, even more importantly, by giving them an appreciation for the resource itself, I will help ensure that they will be committed to the protection and enhancement of those precious coldwater resources both now and in the future. Posterity deserves to have those resources passed on to them in better shape than we received them from our forbearers, and it is up to us now to ensure that will, in fact, happen. So I urge you to take a kid fishing…show that individual how to handle a fly rod, and, above all, share your love for the river with him or her. The future will be better for it…of that I remain convinced.