3 years… horizon …

This October marks 3 years since Four Seasons Angling Club has been started, and 3 years since I got into fishing. Since then, several close friends have joined in authoring the blog site, and many more have fished together. As I sit again here on this plane ride back home, I picture a different perfect scene, this time joined by faces of close friends, and the memories of our time on & off the water. The place I imagine is a collection of many places, sometimes blended together in time. It’s a familiar place, perhaps less mystical than when I started writing 3 years ago. Although I am still a beginner to fishing, I feel slightly more experienced now. My recollections of places and moments are richer with details, I can distinctly remember what the water feels like, the smell of the air, the breeze between my fingers, and the sound of the flowing creeks. Fishing has influenced my life in deep and colorful ways, and it’s brought friends together in new ways. I still enjoy the uncertainty of fishing, and often ask experienced people if they still feel uncertainty when they fish, that is if there are times when they catch a good fish by accident. I doubt that I will ever be as good as the people that no longer catch fish by accident, and in some ways I always want to remain a beginner…simply excited by the fact that I have actually caught a fish. I hope that excitement never goes away for me.

Our friends still love to fish but there’s a sense of relaxation because we have caught many fish during this time. We are more welcoming to new friends who fish, and will spend time to sometime not fish (so we can help our friends catch fish). Some of our friends have gone into the fishing industry, and I suspect most of us will be involved in the industry, in one form another. I have spent time with many experienced anglers in the past few years, and through them see a glimpse of our own futures as we walk further into a lifetime of fishing. It is certain that most of my friends have dominantly fly fished these few years, but a few of us has managed to keep our lure & bait lines wet at times as well. I still like all kinds of fishing, but I guess it takes time to really get into fly fishing – so therefore that’s my excuse when I look over at my lure fishing rods. They say fly fishing isn’t meant to be easy, that as one gets better at it they make it more challenging, and that’s what makes it fun. It’s still not easy for me, but I catch fish when there are fish, and I’m happy with that.

I don’t know if fishing has me a better man, but it has certainly made me a different man. I am more in tune with the weather than I would have ever been, I am more observant to things flying around waters, and I am more concerned with conservation issues that I would have ever been without fishing. I think about the time I spent fishing or preparing to fish. I think about what I would have achieved in that time if it wasn’t fishing… if I would have found something else and felt as passionate about it. I don’t know the answer to that. Whatever I would have done, if I approached it with the same intensity, I would have achieved something – perhaps I would be a wealthier man. I also have to think about what I missed because of that time fishing, did I miss too much time with my family, from work, or other friends who don’t fish? It is true that I am closer to some friends because they fish, and have drifted apart from other because they don’t. I guess I could say those friends would have drifted apart anyways, but I don’t really know. I think I’ve managed to keep myself away from turning into that snobbish fisherman, you know the ones that think they are better than the rest – and the ones who secretly think the world will be a better place if serious anglers ran it. I have to remind myself once now and then that fishing is still primarily a pointless fun recreational activity. I am okay with that, many things in life is that way – meaningless but important (enjoyable).After 3 years, I am left with many feelings about fishing, but most importantly, I am left with a deep appreciation towards the good friends I have shared fishing time with. Without them, it would be merely an activity of catching fish.

The horizon that spans in front of me looks different with a fly rod in my hand. I STILL like what I see.

http://fourseasonsangling.blogspot.com/2007/10/horizon.html