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Why Do We Fish? Final
Blog by: Lloyd Tackitt , TX 2/19/2014 (Return to blogs)
I've mentioned some of the reasons we fish, and many of you have replied with even more. And yet there are tons more reasons than we've mentioned together. That list could go on for a long time.
So, there are many reasons we fish, but I think those are kind of like symptoms. The reasons we can list aren't THE reason, they are "also" reasons. Side effects so to speak. I believe that there is a single underlying reason that we fish. But there's a problem describing that reason.
The problem, it turns out, is that there are some things that can not be adequately described in words. Words are not compatible with certain things. Calling those things feelings doesn't help either. If I said "I fish because it feels good" I wouldn't be coming close. Words fail in describing certain things, ascribing those reasons as feelings fails also. Why we fish is one of them.
In Zen this problem is partially resolved with Koans. You know the most famous one of course "the sound of one hand clapping". These create a confusion in the mind, a deliberate way of saying "it can't be said directly". The reason we fish can't be stated direcltly.
So I'm going to answer the question of why we fish, with a kind-of-sort-of Koan.
Wolf howls at moon.
And that's why we fish, it's a fundametal "nature of the animal" sort of thing.
Blog content © Lloyd Tackitt
Comments
Coyute
02.19.14 8:35 AM
Sounds good to me. /howl
Dave Mauldin
02.19.14 4:09 PM
It is hard to explain.
Why is this a fundamental "nature of the animal"?
... Is it because this basic need or function is engrained into us since the beginning of time?
...
See Genesis chapter 1, focus on vs. 20-28.
Coyute
02.19.14 6:50 PM
some need a book to point out the obvious, some don't. :)
skiman
02.20.14 5:24 AM
"...it is what it is...and therefore I am one with what it is...what ever it is...when ever it is...when I am one with it!"...
Got me thinking and reflecting.
Good Blog Lloyd, Thank-you!
Ski
About the Author
I live on the edge of the Brazos River. I walk out my front door and into the river and - boom - I am fishing just like that. For me the river is fascinating. The mile long stretch I fish is a microcosm of the river, I have it all in that one mile. Trying to figure out where the fish are, what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they are biting, if they are biting - this is what keeps me in the river casting flys. I fly fish almost exclusively. It isn’t that I am a fly fishing snob, it’s that fly fishing works – it’s effective - and it has added benefits. I carry all my tackle in a vest, no tackle box needs to be dragged along. The casting itself is fun, even when I don’t catch fish I’ve enjoyed the experience of casting. Fly rods enhance the experience of bringing fish in. I like the hands on the line feel instead of the feel of line spooling up on a reel and muted down through a gear and crank system. Fish fight better and feel better on a fly rod. Fly fishing just feels better to me than other methods.