Measuring Success in Fly Fishing

[RabbiEE]

From my article this week:

It snowed this weekend in New York City, in what I hope will be the end of our short by cold winter. No matter how brisk the weather remains in these next two weeks of March, I know that April, and the start of my fly fishing season, is but a few precious days away.

After six months of winter, I want my first trip to be a success. Perhaps that is why I will head to one of my favorite rivers that is fully stocked, because I know that if I do not catch a single trout on my first fishing trip of the year, I might be disappointed. In thinking about my desire to do well on the stream, I asked myself: What makes a fly fishing trip a success? When do we come out of the river, pack the waders in the car and say to ourselves: “That was amazing”?

For some, catching fish is the only measure of success of a fly fishing trip. Maybe that is why Orvis sells scales and rulers to calculate the length and weight of the trout we land. If the measure of your fish is the only measure of your success, then what happens if you do not get a bite? Did you waste your time on the river if you did not land a single trout?

When I first taught myself to fly fish in the trout parks of Missouri, I would go hours, and days without catching a trout. It was frustrating. Yet even on the hardest day, when there were no fish to be seen, I still relished the time spent in the stream.

Rabbi E