Just Fishing

When is the last time you just went fishing?

No, I’m not being facetious. Seems like we don’t do that anymore.

When I was a kid, we went fishing to relax. To shuck off the cares of the work-a-day world. To bond with buddies and family members. To just enjoy a day out in the fresh air.

If the largemouth weren’t hitting maybe the pickerel would be. If the walleye weren’t on the bite, maybe the perch were. Or, worst came to worse, there were almost always bluegill to fool around with.

Catching a mess of critters to have for dinner was just icing. The cake was getting out and having a good time.

Nowadays we don’t just go fishing. We go out for bass, or trout, or crappie. And if, for some reason, we aren’t catching those targeted species we get frustrated and out of sorts. Catch a bunch and its a good day. Go home skunked and you're ready to kick the dog.

When did that happen? When did what Sir Issac Walton called “the contemplative sport” become a frenetic competition in which a successful catch wasn’t just something, it was the only thing?

This specialization even affects the language. Go down to any boat dock where bass anglers predominate and you won’t here the word “bass.” They speak only of “fish.” For them that’s meaningful, because there are only two kinds of finned critters swimming in the lake: bass and all the others. Being as the others don’t count, the two words naturally become synonyms.

The ultimate in this is the relationship trout anglers have with whitefish. To put it simply - they hate whitefish, particularly western anglers. When they catch one they look around stealthily, all but break the animal’s back, and return it to the water. “Squeeze & release” they call it.

But here’s the thing. The species actually eats the same things as a trout. Once one is hooked (which, frankly, is often more difficult that hooking an actual trout) it fights like a trout, resembling a brown in almost all respects. But watch what happens when an angler hooks one. He’s whooping, and hollering, and having a grand old time. Until he sees the what he's caught. Then it becomes an expletive deleted whitefish.

I don’t understand that at all. I mean, you’re there supposedly for the sport. And you’re going to release any trout you catch anyway. To my mind, if it quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, then it may as well be wearing feathers. If you’re there for the fun, what’s wrong with catching whites?

Used to be, in the days when we just went fishing, that it wouldn’t have mattered. But now we are, by gawd!, trout anglers. And no other animal counts.

So, here’s a radical thought. If you’re not enjoying the sport like you used to, try this. Next time you go out, don’t go out seeking bass, or trout, or musky. Just go fishing. See if you don’t come home more rejuvenated and relaxed---which is what the sport is supposed to be about.