Fishing
It isn't catching
It's fishing
Doubt
Uncertainty
Hope
Promise
Suspending negativity
Willing suspension of disbelief
The Uncertainty Principal
A hook and the fish's mouth
Seldom occupy the same space and time
Zen of fish
Zen of no fish

You fish better when you're hungry
Hoping for the Big One is foolish
I remember Ireland Lake
Little tarns full of golden-cutthroat hybrids
You could catch them on a piece of tin foil and a treble hook
About the size of a large sardine but tasted
Pretty damned good
Cooking them in foil saves weight

Caught a brookie on my first cast at Shadow Lake
Caught a sixteen-incher at Lake Aloha
Had to cut him in pieces to fry him up
Swear by those yellow rooster-tails




Hiked alone into the Yolla Bolly Wilderness
Pitched my tent in a meadow
At the base of a cliff
A small plane flew over
And bombed the tent with tiny trout
The pilot was having a bad day
I filled my pot with tiny fish and threw them in the water
That evening I
Had to move my tent because of the yellow jackets
Feasting on the fish
Fish out of water
Don't live too long
A kind hiker gave me several panther martins
Using a spinning reel on a fly rod
I could cast the length of the lake
75 by 70 yards
No wonder the pilot missed
What I took out about equaled what I put in

Trolling is easy
But productive
Get the right speed
Get the right depth
Use the right lure
Rubber snubber on lead core line
Four of five colors
Knock em dead
Trout and kokonee
Catch those stupid hatchery trout
Trolling in the rain at Huntington Lake
I caught pneumonia
Fishing in the rain
Do fish catch pneumonia when it rains?






Salmon fishing is cold
Used three-pound iron drop-off weights
With spring-loaded sliding retainers
Catch a shaker
Lose the weight
Fingers freezing when you put a new weight oj
Standing outside in a freezing drizzle
In a new down jacket
That would smell forever of fish

The first time I hooked a yellowfin
My knot broke
My heart broke too
Chalk it up to experience
The next one held
Tied a good Palomar knot
The deckhand snagged it with a gaff
And dropped it!
"Free-spool!" he yelled
"It's in Free-spool"
I guess he liked the drama
Or wanted a bigger tip

I hooked a big dorado
He jumped I swear fifteen feet
And grinned as he threw the hook

Fishing for tuna
I snagged something like a Volkswagen
Broke my 40 pound test like a spider-web
"What was that!"
"Probably a big-eye!" said the deckhand
Deckhands know everything
Just ask them
They'll tell you



I don't kill Golden Trout anymore
They are way too beautiful
In Pebble Creak you could catch a cutthroat
Nearly every cast
Stupid Yellowstone fish
Got broken off on eight-pound test
That got my attention

Trolling in Edison Lake at sundown
Something as big as my leg hit the floating rapalla
The rod bent like a bow
And the lure flew by my face
Just missed catching me
Brown trout's revenge
If fish could laugh
He was smiling

If you catch them
You clean them
The Tao of fishing
Birth Death Redemption Faith Hope Resignation
Sunsets rainbows fog forest-fires deer sweat
Frogs snakes big beaver swimming by your leg unafraid
Butter melting in the pan no salt
Cold Beer in the rocks
Tie it down good
The worst day fishing beats the best day working
Piscatorial karma
Transubstantiation
Wishes into Fishes
I will make you a fisher of men