Is it fair to assume that fly fishing is to positive mental health what running or biking is to cardio health? I think so. And if any of you docs or researchers out there want to add to the conversation, I’m all ears, and want to do a deep-dive story.
I’m not of native-American ancestry. But my ancestors did arrive on these shores over a century ago. By trout standards, does that make me a “wild” American? My wife thinks so.
If big game hunters are smart enough to set seasons according to techniques–there’s a bow season, a muzzleloader season, a rifle season, and so forth–why the hell is it full-on, no-holds-barred with trout, unless rivers are totally closed?
Protections for Bristol Bay, Alaska, are simply awesome.
But that’s all about staving off what might happen. Why don’t anglers double-down to fix what’s already happened, vis a vis the dams on the Snake River that are already damaging 50 percent of the salmon and steelhead habitat in the Lower 48?
If we could restore a fishery, so that it’s 100 percent native fish–a unique fishery that exists nowhere else in the world–why wouldn’t we do that? Do we really need another municipal golf course when we could replace it with Pebble Beach?
What’s it going to take to convince the millions of anglers who found rivers these past few years that “how” is more important than “how many” and is that even possible?
I’m just asking… because I’m really, really worried about the future of a sport I hold sacred.