Clearing Your Head

[Jed]

Chris,

Nice picture. I keep thinking that you must have been lucky to get that nice shot of me. Thanks for the memory.

You are so right about my not thinking about the office when on the water. I remember that hole and casting there. I was thinking about the far side of the river, trying to land my fly exactly on the seam and remembering to throw in a quick mend after. I would go from that thought to marveling at the extent of virgin forest across the water and the beauty that was so similar to home territory and at the same time very different. It was a beautiful spot. I think being there with or without a rod would not have made a hugh difference. Ask Joan who truely enjoyed the day we were on the water and the evening camping. She got as much pleasure as I did and she did not touch a rod.

If my boss walked out of the woods and told me to put the rod down or loose my job I would have laughed at him and continued right on casting. When I fish I am unemployed This Sunday I went out and fished. The water was a chilly 40 degrees and what hold over fish there were not going to be very interested in my offerings. I on the other hand had a great time, casting and relaxing and thinking about, well nothing extraordinary. I did not even think about the list of chores that I broke away from and was going to return to. At least for the moment on the water my head was clear.

When I go out on the water sometimes I focus on catching fish, I get into the technical side of things like what do I have to do to see something on the end of my line. Other times, when I know that there is something I can do to increase my chances of catching I just ignore it and go on doing what I am having fun doing. After all fishing is not about catching fish. Sunday my best chances of catching was with a streamer fished slow and on the bottom. I was having great fun with a nymph and did not stop to make the change back to a streamer. Why bother?

I wonder if my attitude/style is a result of my poor fishing skills or if my style is actually perfectly suited to someone like myself who is a fast paced kind 'a guy that enjoys the pressureless style of fishing.

What about you all? Where do you fit in?

jed

[fcch]

Jed,

I think my style of fishing results from me just basically being lazy!

I won't force a cast for 15 more feet if I can simply change stations. If wading is too difficult, I'lly load up and haul hard.

My tactics are the fruit of basic laziness too. My flies are simple, because I can't be bother to tie complicated flies. I don't usually fish sinking lines 'cause I don't want to be bothered with changing lines.

Maybe I consider that I have caught enough fish over the years, so I'd just rather relax and take a nap on the beach.

[tea stick]

That pretty well sums it up for me too....I'm a lazy fisherman! Don't change flys as often as I should, don't change fly lines, don't catch as many fish as I should. And now my bigest don't.......don't care....but I still have a tremendous amount of fun and sometimes I get lucky and in spite of my laziness, I'll catch a sh%t load of fish.