Over the last couple of months I have been watching the latest crop of fishing movies, and despite the fact there was plenty of action, some good and great fish were caught, and the production values were good, the movies filled me with some disquiet. So do a few new fishing web sites and on-line magazines for much the same reasons.
They are all pretty much the same – sure vastly different places and often different fish, but underlying that was a constant theme of the latest buzz word – ‘extreme fishing’. Fearless 20 or 30 something males, overburdened with testosterone, travel to some world outpost, or some ‘inaccessible fishery’, accompanied by ramped-up music and enough tackle to outfit a couple of hundred fishermen, to make war on the local fish population.
They act and talk like old world explorers – get real – the only reason these guys went to these places is because someone showed them the way – fishermen had been there before them. Some of them by me amongst many others.
Once on the water, with grim faced-determination they begin fishing, and each fish caught is greeted with a round of yells, bellows, high-fives and punching the air. No quiet smiles of satisfaction. No Buster, this is extreme fishing, fishing on the edge. Caught that – next!
Good grief, fishing is not war. Catching a fish is not winning a big football match. It is catching a fish, a creature supposedly several times dumber than most anglers, although sometimes you have to wonder.
Get a grip. Fishing is all about taking the opportunity to panel beat some of the dings and dents to the brain from the collisions of living in this frenetic world of ours. Extreme fishermen have all the gear, often the knowledge, but they have yet to learn and catch it’s soul. Till then they will continue to catch fish in exotic locations, but not know that they know very little about fishing.
“Most men pursue the pleasure of fishing with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” – Avery Smartman
