There is more to fishing than catching fish! :)

[Guest Mike Connor]

Engaged, as I often am, in relatively random ruminations, mainly on the

subject of fishing, several things occurred to me. Even if my fishing

opportunities are limited at the present time, at least I can still think

about it.

 

"There is more to fishing, than simply catching fish", was one of the

phrases which crossed my mind.

 

Most interesting, and I decided to investigate this further. Obviously

true, but very difficult if not impossible to actually quantify, I resolved

nevertheless to attempt it.

 

Piscatorial purists, pedants, perfectionists, and probably plenty of pure

peasants, will doubtless shudder at the sweeping nature of some of the

assumptions made in the course of this endeavour. Be it known, that the

following contains no exact scientific mensuration, merely medleys of

meandering mentation.

 

Assume then;

 

First of all that all necessary basic equipment has been obtained. This

introduces some considerable error, as to be accurate, one must include the

length of time involved in these operations. Unfortunately the difficulties

involved here, are more or less insurmountable. Also, this may be a more or

less singular factor with some anglers, with others it is a recurring

phenomenon.

 

For the purpose of this calculation then this factor = X

 

Time spent planning a fishing trip. Once again a considerable problem, as

this depends on the trip, and the angler. It would seem fair however to

assume an average of two hours per trip.

 

Time spent tying or obtaining flies, Say one hour per trip ( one might

include the time calculated in terms of money spent, which cost time and

effort to obtain, but this is once again ignored as being far too difficult)

 

Travelling time. Assume two hours per trip.

 

Time spent actually on the water in question. One of the largest factors,

and we will assume an average six hours. This basically includes the time

for all activities carried out during this period of time.

 

Catching and landing a fish. Six minutes. Assume five fish per day on

average = 30 minutes.

 

Time spent eating, drinking, watching birds, avoiding canoes, grizzly bears,

snakes, etc etc while not actually on the water. Say thirty minutes.

 

Time spent reviewing the trip, relating results to friends family etc,

posting reports, thinking up reasonable excuses for being late home, and so

on. one hour.

 

This gives us a grand total of X+2+1+2+6+ .5 +.5+ 1 = 13 hours which we

will declare as being 100%

 

The time spent catching the fish, expressed as a percentage of the total =

3.846% Rounding off for X gives Ca 3%.

 

It seems there is indeed a lot more to fishing than simply catching fish.

97% of the time is buggering about!

 

TL

MC