Last month, I wrote about the ‘dry spells’ that are frequently encountered by anglers, due to their intense and idiosyncratic fixations with fish. If Albert Einstein had been an angler, he might have pointed out that dry spells were subject to relativity, and that the existence of a drought also proved the existence of floods.
By all accounts, Einstein’s idiosyncrasies were at an elite level, which leads me to believe that he’d have been a great angler, in addition to theoretical physicist. But, had this been the case, we might be deprived of his theory of relativity, as no truly dedicated angler can ignore fish for very long. Theoretical physics and philosophy aside, persistent anglers know that just a single outing can change their fortunes entirely, and make lemonade out of lemons in an emphatic way.
Naturally, my writing is a reflection of my life at the moment that my pen meets paper. As I progress clumsily in angling and outdoorsmanship, I simply try to share and record whatever lessons and experiences accumulate as byproducts of this activity. At the beginning of the 2021 spring fishing season, my expectations were ambitious—to put it generously. In retrospect, my mistake is clear, and my disappointment with tough fishing and a lack of early success is the unmistakable result. Looking back, I also see in myself symptoms of what Myles Nolte and Joe Cermele refer to on their fishing podcast as ‘degenerate angler’ syndrome. I’m actually comfortable referring to myself in this way, and find it easy to laugh it off.
When it rains, it pours
By Andrew Howarth
