Of Facebook and fishermen

5/23/2014

How about asking Ernest Hemingway about writing "The Old Man and the Sea," and what his inspiration for it was? It would have been pretty cool, huh?

Well, guess what: Cool is here and now. I’ve often wondered what Jimmy Houston thought the first time he saw a spinnerbait. All I have to do is ask him through the wonders of the information superhighway and a little site called Facebook … or Instagram or Tumblr or Twitter. Pick your poison.

Point being, we can actually be friends with our heroes, and we don’t have to be delusional to do it. You can ask Arnold Palmer his opinion of the perfect golf swing, or if the greens at Augusta really are as tricky as everyone says they are. Have you ever wanted to know what Ted Nugent means when he talks about the mystical flight of the arrow? Facebook, my friend. Just ask.

Also, you can keep up with what your favorite fishermen are up to. You can see what they do when they aren’t on stage at a major bass tournament or on the front deck of a boat casting for cash. See Brent Ehrler at Disneyland with his family or Jacob Wheeler catching little smallmouth in a creek he fished as a kid. How about Mark Rose putting a serious beatdown on a bucketful of crappie, or Chad Grigsby cooking his favorite Asian dish for his family? Or maybe even yours truly doing – well, heaven knows what, but it’ll probably be worth a comment or two.

Never has there been a time in history when we could be in touch with people the way we can be now. Just think about it. You’re out at your favorite lake. You put your boat in and notice the water has dropped and that it’s really cleared up since the last time you fished it. You know who would do well in a situation like this? Cody Meyer. Well, instead of sitting there muddling around and beginning to make up your excuses, Facebook him a message.

It might not be right away, but he’ll get back to you. Another example: It’s Wednesday afternoon before your big derby on Saturday. Big storm’s rolling in, and you know it’s going to have the lake high and muddy for the weekend. You would really like to get some advice on high-water pitching and flipping. Who do you know that’s good at that? No brainer: Jason Christie. Boom, Facebook. Jason’s a busy guy, but I bet you get some advice from him.

Fishing would be the easy part, though. I can see this getting carried away very easily. Before long I might be Facebooking my girlfriend, asking her why she is all the sudden irate with me? Probably I wouldn’t get quite as straight of an answer as I would from David Dudley about rigging and fishing a wacky worm. Wonder if I can Facebook the traffic safety commission and ask to get the speed limit raised to 100 mph, but only for pro fisherman traveling to tournaments? Bet I get farther asking Dan Morehead about Kentucky Lake crankbaits.

I guess social media isn’t the cure-all for what ails mankind, but it sure is a way to get a lot of "friends." As my Dad used to say, isn’t science grand?