If they have a day where they have caught a goodly amount of average size trout, they will boast of the number and complain that the fish were small. If the winds of good fortune smile upon them and they land the "big one", they will bemoan that it was the only fish they saw all day. Should all the planets line up for them and the number of trout caught is abundant and the size large and plump, they will frown that their usual fishing associate did not make this trip and will not believe their report.
Seems we are a hard lot to please.
Now, this is not new to the "Contemplative Man's Sport". The Elizabethan epigrammatis and Church of England Vicar Thomas Bastard ( yes, that's his name) penned the following lines in 1598:
Book 6, Epigram 14: De Piscatione
by Thomas Bastard
"Fishing, if I a fisher may protest,
Of pleasures is the sweetest, of sports the best,
Of exercises the most excellent.
Of recreations the most innocent. But now the sport is marred, and what, ye, why?
Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply."
A fly fisherman can also be pretty fond of argument and correction.
I recall a time when I had a pretty successful time at "Cemetery Pool" on N.Y.'s Beaverkill River. The angler upstream from me spent his time flogging the water, but came up empty in his quest. We happened to cross paths with each other as we came off the river and were heading to our automobiles.
"Hey!, the angler said to me, " I couldn't help but notice that you were into a fish quite often down there. I couldn't buy a fish tonight if my life depended on it", the angler said with a defeated look on his face. "
To which I replied, "Yeah, seems I could not miss at times. I was using a size 14 Quill Gordon Dry Fly ".
The angler, shook his head and said, "Really? You know that's the wrong fly!"
Right then the words of Fly Fisherman and Author, Corey Ford came to me,
" You can always tell a fisherman, but you can't tell him much!"
Keep it Classic, JB
