Fishing. It’s what we do.

By Joseph Alfe

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If I could fish every day, I would.  No question about it.  I know that I’m not alone in this sentiment, because a lot of you would do so as well, I just know it.  You understand that’s it’s not only about the fish.  To try to boil it down to non-fishers is always tricky, because it’s so much more than the fish.  It’s the hunt.  The constant thinking and strategy is a far cry from the layman’s observation of fishing as a relaxing pastime.   It’s the long hours preparing and deciding how to approach a lake, what to throw, how to dissect a spot.  It’s the pouring over maps, and contour lines and GPS coordinates.  It’s the physicality of thousands of casts, pitches, flips, skips per day,

no matter what the weather or conditions.  Fishing is relaxing?  Not on my boat.  I’m here to figure out this complex and ever changing puzzle that is fishing, and I’m not alone.  I know that you take it just as serious as I do.  I know that you too will be out in the gnarly weather, or the difficult conditions because this is who we are.  We fish.  This is what we do and we just aren’t completely happy unless we are out there pursuing our passion. It’s not about the fish all the time, and sometimes it’s not about the drive or the knowledge or the hunt even.  Sometimes it’s just about the wind and the sun and the water.  I can look into the water for hours and never tire of it.  It’s like we’re drawn to it.  It’s seeing the grandeur of nature, the wildlife, the wind and the waves.  It’s time with friends or sometimes, time to be alone.  We live to get out on the water, any water, and give it all we have. Nothing but you, your thoughts and the fish, for fishing is many things, and it’s different for all of us but one thing is clear:  We are fisherman.  It’s what we do.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after   -Henry David Thoreau

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