The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-23
ANGLING
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In an editorial in Outdoor Life. the
writer defines "a good fisherman" The
| article is interesting reading for ang-
| lers, and reads as follows:
Not every man, by any means, who
| fishes is fisherman; not every fisher
| man is good fisherman. Truly any
| one who possesses legs and arms and
| energy to use them may, with dill
| gence, learn to cast fly or spin a min
| now or swim worm gracefully, accur-
ately and far And truly anyone so
| accomplished may be persevering at the
waters side undoubtedly kill fish; he
! may even kill many fish. But to be a
| fisherman. much less a good one, de-
| mands more than mere dexterity and
| k-to-a-tiveneSS-far more. Techni-
| cal skill in the mechanics of fishing and
| persistence in applying such skill as
one has are essential to higher things,
! but to stop short when only these have
| been attained isto miss the real pleas
ure of the art of fishing. 1t may be
| Hamlet if you like, but with Hamlet
! left out The man who fishes may be
able to place a fly on a floating leaf at
60 feet or drop a minnow exactly in a
| given spot at 80 yards without making
so much as a ripple; he may fish from
dawn to midnight and become positively
| bowlegged from the weight of his
creel, but if beyond all this and above
angling ideals. if for instance he finds
| no more in fishing than just the scien-
| tific killing of fish, he is not a fisher
man and most certainly not good one.
| For a good fisherman regards the bare
killing of fish, however, accomplished,
| as merely incidental to the game he
plays, just as a keen whist player re-
CARDS his winnings in an evening of 10
cent points.
1T is good to win whether fish or
dimes, but the really important thing,
the one thing more important far than
| just winning or losing, is the game it
self AS a good whist player loses all
| interest when he has to cheat to win
! (unless the stakes are beyond his
means and in that case he is more fool
than whist player) so the good fisher
| man loses all interest in his fishing and
| his catch if he breaks any of those
| laws of honest craftsmanship devised
to put the caught on some sort of
| equality with the catcher, and to give
| a generally recognized current value to
| success. Gamblers, men who only want
| the chance to make money easily, sell
| dom play whist-it is too little of a
gamble and too much of a game: and
| men who merely want fish without
paying for them naturally prefer dy-
| Mantle or nets. But the good whist
player though he plays for a modest
stake and hopes to win plays the game
| primarily for the games sake and
wins or loses with the same equanim-
| ity. though maybe not with exactly the
| same amount of joy. He finds more
| pleasure in achieving than in the
achievement. And so with the good
| fisherman. He indeed fishes in likely
! waters, for choice, and hopes to make
a good catch, but he is an angler for
the pleasure of angling: one who fishes
more for the sake of fishing than FIR
the sake of the fish.
Fishing simply for the catch is a
barbarous anachronism, survival
from that birthday of angling when
| the first hunger-driVen fisherman
caught his first fish and Wolfed it down
raw. scales included. Since then condi-
tions have changed, and to-day no one
is forced to fish or go fishless. 1t IS
cheaper and infinitely easier to buy
from the fish dealer than to catch from
| the stream, and if those who say they
| fish for the catch alone were quite
| consistent. they would cast dollar in
| the fish market ten times before they
cast a fly on a stream once. Those also
| who say they fish merely for the OPP
portunity fishing affords them to exer-
else their skill in laying out line
| straight and true with it's end resting
on a given point should find as much
| pleasure on level lawn as anywhere
else-perhaps more plea sure, since they
| could thus avoid all danger of wet feet.
| Why, then, are the fish market and the
| lawn so little popular? Because there
! is in even the least developed species
! of the genius angler, in the mere man
| who fishes. a yearning. unconscious
| though it may be. after ideals to Whlch
| neither lawn nor fish market give SUM-
| cient scope. He who, recognizing ire
| existence, of these Ideals. strives 10
| know them intimately ana persists IN
| following them closely, becomes first a
| fisherman and finally passes Inc faf-
| row portals of that inner sanctuary
| which only good fishermen may enter.
| And let no one fancy we are preach
| ing an unattainable perfection. To de-
| yelop to their full the highest angling
| ideals requires NJ more in the begin
ming than lies fallow in the mental and
moral nature of the average man who
| fishes, One need not be and one need
! never quite become a ThOreau in alb
| stract love of nature or a Buckland in
| ichthyology a Corot in artistic tenn
| nerament or an Eaton in entomology.
| One need not have and one need never
wholly attain quite all of Swift's wit,
| or of Chesterfield's courtesy, Lambs
| quaint sympathy with human folly, or
| an Indian fakir's stole disregard OF
| material conditions. One need not be or
| become generous to the degree of vol
| untary poverty, or merciful to such n
| degree that life in whatever form Is
sacred, or self denying so far as to
abate one jot or one title of that gener-
GUS rivalry and desire to excel which