The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-04-30
r~,llOSOPHlC ANGLER.
A th'"ago Editor Gives Reasons Why
,.me Ii.hcrmen Cnich Nnfhinc.

and VI stanley Waterloo. have invited
to e. fishing with them. Beginning
in mere infancy with the artless but
glittering minnow, we have worked our
up and along the ascending scale.
thousands upon thousands of pumpkin
seeds. dace. perch. bullheads, cells, pike
pickcrel and bass falling victim to oui
incompatible art. We have been i'm
portuned TO write a book about angling;
publishers have come to us and %besoughi
us with tears in their eyes to give the
world the vast benefit of our knowledge.
But we have resisted these temptations
for the reason that. knowing that our
proficiency is a gift rather than m ac-
complishment, W. believe that the true
fisherman is born, not made.
Some who have scrutinizcd our meth
DDS assert that the secret of u Tnpar,
alleled success is due largely to the fact
that we invariably spit upon Il bait
Others maintain that we catch fish be-
cause we never swear, and others still
impute our success to the circumstance
that under no circumstances whatever
will we go fishing on Il 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 dc
not depend at all upon these trivial
things; we catch fish simply because
we were born with that subtle, indcfin-
able genius for catching fish which can
not be com%prehended ave congenitally
or by the mysterious process of heredity.
The question which arises is whether
it would be righteous of us to prostitute
this noble genius to the ends which,
| Messrs. Read and Waterloo suggest.
Would it not be a criminal waste of time
| for us to devote from six to eight hour.
q day to that lackadaisical fooling which
| those misguided friends of ours call fish
ing? 1t strikes us that we could be mucl
better employed than at the question
able sport of doddering about in an awk
ward yawl in pursuit of emaciated percl
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 II rolling stone gath
ers no moss. so IA rowing angler compre.
hends no game. These two amateur
sportsmen no sooner get into u boat and
cast their lines than they are filled with
the absurd conviction that the best fish
ing is to be found a mile away, under /
distant bank; vet no sooner is this fal
off spot reached than they are possessed
of another and more violent conviction
that a still more desirable angling spo
is the rushes against the farther sbor,
of the lake. And so from one ~localit,
to another they must be transported
never content TO try the present waters
but always goaded on by the insan'
hope of finding enormous success else
where.
Life is full of this spirit of impatienc
and unrest. and that is why there are $
few fish caught. As for us, it content
us to push ont from shore, drop tn
anchor and cast our line: no worry. IL
fretting, no labor-simply equanimit,
and rcpose and success. What sweete
thing is there TO be practiced or imagine'
than this sport as we pursue 1t: We II
in the bottom of the boat. our head pill
lowed upon II cushion at the bow;
green umbrella forefends the ar,lor a
the sun. and with Il companionable boo
the hours are beguilcd. The humbl
but seryiccable bob apprises us when
is time for action. Oh. this is tishin
that is indeed fishing! Why toll hithe
and thitlier over the ruthed eXpans
when "fruition comes easier with respost
The veriest clod can rows and sweat. bu
only a genius can p~lilosophize and cate
tish.-Eugene Field in Chicago News.