Hi Folks!

Have you ever considered that? Or how about blasting caps and medium Dupont spinners?

A recent post about treble hooks, snagging, and the certainty of catching, rather than just fishing (possibly without catching) stimulated these thoughts. Regulations aside, why do we encumber ourselves with such inefficient means of procuring fish? I know, fishing tackle sometimes is a fairly effecient way, but certainly not in the grand scale of things. I mean, if you want to measure your catch by the ton, rather than by the inch or pound, it's tough to beat a drift gill net, a Dupont cast into a pool of schooled up salmon, and such like.

Come on Salmo, are you just baiting us like that flame guy? Well, yeah, a little bit. I thought I'd just like to put in a word for sport. I like to catch fish, but if the outcome of fishing was certain, I'd probably go once or twice. But it wouldn't sustain my interest. (Not to mention the resource!) Would it sustain yours?

I recall reading that sportfishing is defined by three qualities (there may be more; this was written a long time ago).

TRADITION, ETHICS, and RESTRAINT.

Absent these, we would probably be practicing something other than sportfishing. Even as a kid, it became obvious right away that fishing was about a lot more than procuring meat from the water to deliver to the larder. We limit the practice to certain times, places, methods, techniques, and limits. It increases the challenge and the satisfactions we take in our success. Isn't knowing that we could take steps to reduce the uncertainty, and then trying to deal with an angling situation in spite of the uncertainty a large part of fishing's ultimate satisfaction? Is for me.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.