Fishing Does Not Have to Be a Sport

Fishing Does Not Have to be a Sport

There are all kinds of fishing tournaments and fishing contests you can enter. There are fishing channels on cable television. I wonder if it's an Olympic event yet? Anyway, I say that fishing is not a sport.

When you think of a sport, you think of sweating and rushing and pulling muscles and stuff. Well, when I think of fishing I think of quiet summer afternoons by myself on the lake. I think of relaxing in my little one man pontoon boat and letting my mind drift as my fishing lure bobs on the surface of the water. There's nothing else as relaxing as this.

Now, true, you can have sweating and rushing and pulling muscles when you fish, but why would you want to? I mean, just the pure solitude while you're out on the water can quiet your mind and replenish your energy. If you're doing it as a competition sport you lose all those relaxing qualities.

When I was little, my Daddy used to take me to the same lake in the woods behind our cabin that I go to now. He would show me how to dig deep to get the best worms and how to put them on my hook so they'd stay. Then we'd hit the water in our little fishing boat wearing those bright orange life jackets that always smelled a little funny when you put them on. Sometimes it would be an hour or more before either of us spoke. It was our way of relaxing and just enjoying being together.

Now as a grown up, I'm still drawn to that solitude of the lake. After a week of work and bills and schedules, I get so stressed out. But just a few minutes of fishing can take my mind to that place of peace and contentment.

The little fishing boat fell apart years ago, so now I have a one man boat. When I have a son, I want to show him the joys of being alone with just the water and the fish. I guess I'll need to get a bigger boat.

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