Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-20
THE PHftOSOPHfC ANGLER.
A Chicago Editor Gives Reasons Why
Some Fishermen Catch Nothing

and Mr.. Stanley Waterloo, have invite
tbs TO go fishing with them. Beginnin,
in nero infancy with the artless bu
gtittoring minnow, we have worked on
way up and along the ascending scale
thousands upon thousands of pumpkin
seeds, dace, perch, bullheads, cells, pike
pickerel and bass falling victim to on
Incompatible art. We have been i'm
portuned to write book about angling
publishers have come to us and besongh
us with tears in their eyes to give tho
world the vast benefit of our knowledge
But we have resisted these temptation,
for the reason that, knowing that oul
proficiency is a gift rather than an ac
complishment we believe that the true
fisherman is born, not made.
Some who have scrutinized our meth,
DDS assert that the secret of our unpar.
atieiod success is due largely to the fact
that we invariably spit upon our bait.
Others maintain that we catch fish be-
cause we never swear and others still
mpute our success to the circumstance
that under no circumstances whatever
will we so fishing on a Sunday. There
are those. we repeat, who honestly lay
our success to these secret causes, but
they are all in grievous error.
Our remarkable accomplishments do
not depend at all upon these trivial
things; we catch fish simply because
we were born with that subtle, indefn-
able genius for catching fish which can
not be comprehended save congenitallv
or by the mysterious process Of heredity.
The question which arises is whether
1t would be righteous of us to prostitute
this noble genius to the ends which
MesSrs. Read and Waterloo suggest.
Would 1t not be a criminal waste of time
for us to devote from six TO eight hours
a day TO that lackadaisical fooling which
those misguided friends Of ours call fish
ing? 1t strikes us that we could be much
better employed than at the question
able sport Of doddering about in an awl-
ward yawl in pursuit of emaciated perch
and neurasthenic pickerel. When we
fish we want to fish, and we are not con-
tent with cadaverous lilliputian prey:
we demand heroic game.
Messrs. Read and Waterloo are very
clever gentlemen, but they have yet to
learn that just as a rolling stone gath
ers no moss, so a rowing angler compre-
hends no game. These two amateur
sportsmeu no sooner get into q boat and
cast their lines than they are filed with
the absurd conviction that the best fish
ing Is to be found a mile away, under
distant bank; yet no sooner is this far
off spot reached than they are possessed
of another and more violent conviction
that a still more desirable angling spot
is the rushes against the farther shore
Of the lake. And so from one locality |
to another they must be transported. /
never content to try the present waters.
but always goaded on by the insane +.
hope Of finding enormous success else /
where.
Life is full of this spirit Of impotence .
and unrest, and that is why there are 50 /
few fish caught. AS for us, it contents .
as to push out from shore, drop the 4
anchor and cast our line; no worry, no
fretting, no iabor-simply equanimity
and repOse and success. What sweeter
thing is there to be practiced or imagined
than this sport as we pursue it? We lie
in the bottom Of the boat, our head pill
lowed upon a cushion at the bow: a
green umbrella forefends the ardor of
the sun, and with a companionable book
the hours are beguiled. The humble
but seryiceable bob apprises us when it
is time for action. Oh, this is fishing
that is indeed fishing! Why toll hither
and thither over the ruffled expanse
when fruition comes easier with respose?
The veriest clod can row and sweat, but
only a genius can philosophize and catch
Field in Chicago News.