What Fishing’s REALLY About

Awhile back, I had a couple of characters in my boat that just didn’t get the true concept of fishing. Throughout the day, they sat with their arms crossed tightly across their chests, starting at their rod tips. The pair didn’t say two words to each other or me the entire day.

Within an hour, they both had furrowed brows and facial expressions that ranged from scowls to grimaces.

The bite was slow that day and their moods soured with each passing moment. All the while, I tried to get them to lighten up a little, to remember to enjoy the fact that they were not at work, but instead on a lovely stretch of river.

I tried pointing out the surrounding flora and fauna along the riverbanks, cracked a few jokes and busted out every funny antidote from previous trips I could remember. They didn’t even give me a sliver of a smile when I told my now-famous story about Chloe, the dead rat. Eventually, I exhausted my entire bag of tricks…but still, nothing. It was like having two granite boulders in my boat — each etched with Olympic-sized frowns on their faces .

I see this type of person every so often — the kind who doesn’t understand the point of going on a fishing trip.

Sure, catching fish is great, but when you get right down to it, that should just be the proverbial cherry on top. 

Fishing isn’t so much about filling a cooler with dead fish; it’s about being away from all the little fires that burn on a daily basis back at the office. It’s about not having to change the toner in the Xerox machine or having to work through lunch. It’s about giving your buddy a herculean ration of grief when he misses a bite. It’s about swapping stories about the cheerleader you had a crush on in high school or boasting about winning your office’s fantasy football league.

Fishing has everything to do with taking a quiet moment at sunset to listen to a barking formation of Canada geese as they fly overhead or watching a deer and fawn slip into the streamside brush. It has to do with buckets of cold KFC chicken and fingertips stained “Cheetos” orange. It’s about spitting sunflower seeds and gnawing on steak-sized hunks of beef jerky.

 It’s all about untangling your little one’s line a hundred times and watching them wrestle with the sand-encrusted trout they just dragged ashore. It’s about the pride you feel deep inside when your kid out-fishes you for the first time.

Fishing is about giving yourself a chance to breathe deeply and let the stress of daily life melt away — if just for a day. It’s all about turning the cell phone off and instead working to throw a perfect loop with your fly line.

 It’s about shooting the bull with the nice elderly couple in the boat next to you at the launch, about searching for treasures in the aisles of the funky little tackle shop on the way to the lake. It’s about the BBQ rib platter the size of Texas at the little diner you stopped at on the ride home.

And even when you’re back at work, it’s the email you get from your fishing buddy on Monday morning that reads: “That trip was awesome. Can’t wait to go again.” And it’s the picture of you and your pal holding up the only fish of the day, a 6-inch trout that you’ve got on your computer’s screen saver.

When you take a moment out of your busy day, look at that picture and smile…that’s when you know you get what fishing is all about.