Redaction-ish

It seems I struck a nerve. 

 

I had a few people reach out in response the my anti-trout bum rhetoric. All were blunt and honest. Some put their name to it. Others didn’t. So, I’ll take a step back and try to articulate what I want to say with I Am Not a Trout Bum.

 

I am sick of the fly fishing industry. For too long, the culture was all graybeards and tweed and Filson hats. So another culture was created in response, and good on ’em. That culture says if you don’t live fly fishing day in and day out, you’re a gaper. You’re a tourist. If fly fishing isn’t priorities #1, #1A, and #1B, then give it up. And the industry has responded. So it’s all Trout Bum, all the time. I’m sick of the sentiment that if you don’t fish 100+ days per year, you don’t love to fish, and I’m nauseated by the attachment of corporate materialism to what is supposedly a minimalist movement. 

 

This doesn’t mean I have a problem with those who can live to fish. Like I say, Enough is Never Enough, so I understand the compulsion to keep catching more/bigger/faster. My problem is the prevalent attitude making pariahs out of those who have anything prioritized over fly fishing.  

 

Maybe I’m the only one who cares. Maybe it doesn’t bother other guys who “only” get forty (or thirty, or twenty) days on the water. Maybe I’m about to turn 30 and I’m just a little cranky about everything.