Living on a temporary pause and watching YouTube videos. Seems to me the folks fishing on these videos need some lessons on just about everything. Is Doug available ? Right handed casters with reels on wrong side, no line control, charging into a pool, GoPro hands everywhere, poor techniques and I am sure most fish released died shortly after. Not to mention flies, one is better than another. Trust your fly!
Do we need another video about types of flies and how one is better than another? Not sure, but I can see why. Taking up fly fishing for some is a right of passage, buying expensive gear a fashion statement, getting a GoPro makes everyone a film maker. Listen we all need to find our passion, no doubt as we age we need validation in our lives. Being something or someone for others to admire, self absorbed in our narcissistic self.
So what's driving our personal dissatisfaction, can't we just be happy in our own selves. I found some self doubt awhile ago, considered my lack of accomplishments, not doing anything special and wallowed in a funk. Then I started to watch videos, found that some showed rivers and lakes I paddled and fished 50 years ago, trails I hiked, places I visited, trails I biked. Watching these fishing videos no matter how poorly they were made or the lack of skills they demonstrated that they were trying. Jumping on my bike as a kid to fish for bluegills in a NYC park (with my first fly rod) was pure. I too had my reel on backwards for maybe 40 years, my leader choices wrong for 30 years, the knots I used wrong for 20 years. I did learn and did become a better angler.
I recently read the book "The River Why". A story of a young man leaning to fish, fly fish and learn some valuable life lesson along the way. Good read written 30 years ago, but still germane to today's world. We are all travelers on a road, where that road leads we need to keep traveling. So Art is on pause for now, time spent to reawaken his spirit. Learning most of all life doesn't revolve around one thing.
