I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE
In the recent issue of Arizona Highways I think I saw the future for the fly fisher of the 21st century. It was a small item on the editorial page that mentioned a new feature in the magazine, 2D bar codes. They are using these in conjunction with their articles on hiking opportunities in Arizona. The 2D bar code does not look anything like the conventional bar code that we see on products in the store. It does not contain any numbers or letters just a series of squiggly lines and some rectangles. You point your phone at the bar code, photograph it and your phone will then direct you to a Web site that provides more information about the product or place. You need to download an application that allows your phone to perform its magic, but beyond that it is simply point and shoot and your phone will do the rest.
Now for me a phone is what you use to make phone calls. I don’t send text messages with my phone, surf the web, take pictures or read bar codes. I don’t twitter, tweet, or follow my friends every movement on Facebook. Unfortunately I realize that I am part of an increasingly small minority, and I can see that this new technology is just another way to meet the increasing desire for information on demand. In our modern society, where instant gratification is a requirement, this technology is bound to catch on quickly.
I can see it now. You arrive at the fishing access site. On a plaque you find a 2D bar code, point your phone at it and instantly your phone connects you to a Web site that instantly tells you the water temperature, current hatches, and the hot flies to use.
While this may seem farfetched in the last few years I have watched with increasing consternation the proliferation the increasing reliance on modern technology. I fear that somewhere along the line we will lose our ability to figure it out on our own. I don’t want some electronic gadget to tell me everything that I need to know about the fishing conditions, the hatches, and what to use and how to use it. Where is the satisfaction in that?
A few months ago I wrote about using indicators and my personal feeling that except in certain limited situations that using indicators was equivalent to using a bobber. No skill necessary, just attach your fly, put on an indicator and sling the whole mess into the closest water and watch the indicator. When it twitches you strike. While it has a certain value in teaching a beginner how to catch fish with a nymph too many people never move beyond the beginning stage. It works, it produces fish, but should that be the real test of what constitutes the fly-fishing experience?
Recently the Ladyfisher received an email from someone that had stumbled on our Web site and posted a query to her about what flies to use on his favorite stream and when to use them. He wanted specifics since what he was currently doing was apparently not producing the results that he expected. He did not want to figure it out himself, and seemed to have no interest in doing so. She forwarded the email to me and I advised him to get some good books [I made several suggestions], check out some of the archived articles on FAOL, find a friend that has experience, and get out there and learn what works on his particular water. I’m not certain that’s what he wanted to hear.
If the current dependency on technology continues to make major inroads into fly-fishing circles I am afraid that we will be receiving more emails from folks that believe the we can and should be able to provide them with every detail about how to catch fish on flies without the necessity of having to learn it for them self. I am increasingly concerned that fly-fishing is being reduced to a pragmatic series of procedures with the end result of catching the most and the biggest fish with the least expenditure of effort on the part of the angler. I have seen the future and I’m glad that I still live in the past.