"Fishing" Social or Solitary?

[white43]

Depends. I have four fishing buddies. Two are river addicts whose ideas of fishing are to paddle downriver in canoes to choice spots for small catfish (1-3 lbs) for a campout, sandbar fish fry. I wouldn't miss these adventures for anything. Hell, we're all old enough that just a couple of good grade cold beers in the evening is more than enough. A third posts here and is an excellent fly fisherman (Wrangler) whose company I enjoy immensely. We savor and we appreciate and we don't get much opportunity to fish together because of our jobs. The fourth is an obstinate, one-legged tennis coach whose last encounter with a train nearly killed him (he was having a fight with his teenage daughter on what tapes to play when he drove into the moving train). He's a converted walleye jigger who leads with the transome and often leaves anyone in the bow with little or no fishing opportunity. I'm thinking it would be good double-haul bonefish casting practice. He's into limits and contests and gets extremely angry when he's outfished, meaning most of the time. Minnow jobbers should make the old coot their "fisherman of the year." He has one other odd habbit that drives one close to the edge, and that's his love of bubblegum music from the late 1950s. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is his anthem. He's Norman from Golden Pond personified. Yet, most of the time I fish alone in my cedar strip in lakes most Minnesotans drive past. I enjoy my drink with companionship, my fishing in solitude. JGW

[Coach Robb]

This has turned into a very interesting string for me. I have no problem at the trail head or the camp fire being social.
I've recently left a church that my children were 9th generation to attend. Recently God has talked to me more in the solitude of a stream, seen his hand in the colors of a sun fish, or the sparkle of a trout, praised his name in a sun rise.
I'm still self conscious of the amount of flies I leave in trees and stream side bushes, but it gives me a reason to tie more.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've learned to appreciate being alone while not being lonely.
I hope this isn't to profound ,but one of the reasons i enjoy this website is the ability to express oneself without judgement.

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"Illegitimus nil Carborundum"

[okflyfisher]

I got started fishing with my dad and we fished a lot of wild country together in the UP of Michigan for my dad's beloved brook trout. Our fishing usually involved a lot of walking so we walked in together. Then we split up fish and meet at visible land mark in the area at a certain time ,and tell fish stories, black bear or wildlife stories on the walk out. If I fish with a newbe on a stream I generally take only one fly rod and we alternate fish. In this kind of fishing i might not get to fish much, but it is fun, helping them to see fish or reconize where fish might lay. The Lord willing they ususally catch some fish.

[Grizzly Wulff]

For most of my fishing life, I tended to prefer the company of myself to others. Most of the guys I knew that fished were spinning rig or bait caster types and we seemed to have an entirely different ?rhythm on the river,? so I began going out alone.

Fishing alone took a lot of the stress out of fishing. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted, for as long or short as I wanted, without feeling the pressure of having to accommodate someone else?s desires.

As I?ve grown more age mature, my desire to be alone has been replaced with a desire to be safe, a bad fall when your in your twenties looks a whole lot different when you in your sixties.

I now have two guys that I fish with on a regular basis. Both are contemporaries of mine, both are good fishermen, and both are easy to be with. A lot of our fishing involves trips of 2 to 4 hours to get to our destination, and it?s nice to have company on the ride. When we get to our destination we tend to go our separate ways, do our own thing, and then meet back up at predetermined times during the day.

When you find someone that you enjoy fishing with, hang on to them for they truly are a ?treasure.?





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Dan S
"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel." Roderick Haig-Brown, A River Never Sleeps

[J Castwell]

I was very fortunate to have found treasure so very early in my fly fishing escapades.