I go through life balancing work, family and pursuits that make me feel good. Of course, flyfishing is one of my primary pursuits of pleasure. I realize that in much of life I am an average student. I do well in a few things but in general I find myself grasping at minutiae to advance my knowledge, but often letting it drift away as too difficult to absorb and questioning why, really. So, I am pretty mellow with regards to flyfishing’s complexities. I try to share (hence this blog) and I try not to let ego or a sense of superiority get in the way. I do not want to be viewed as elitist nor think I am elite. I was raised in a blue collar/farming environment and that is really my core. So, I rarely judge flyfishers. But, I have several biases, that try as I might, I cannot shake. When I confront them, I suddenly have this little pang of guilt. I mark that up to our over sensitized culture of PC and a watered down version of the golden rule and ‘judge not lest…’, etc. So, with those constraints of good manners in mind…why the hell does any fisher, particularly a flyfisher call his rod a pole? All manner of engrained biases emerge here: Opie and Andy Griffith, worms and a big red and white bobber, folding chairs and Power Bait, jigging 15 ozs. of lead and a fish head for halibut in three foot swells, muddin’ and chew.
It is a rod. I don’t know why really. I just know it makes me feel better and more elite to not call the damn thing a pole. I paid enough for it and others, and they shall damn well be called rods. Ha! there I said it.
One other pet peeve: guys that travel the world fishing at $1K to $2K per day and act so demanding and arrogant and can’t fish worth a shit. I would call their rod a pole to annoy them, but they wouldn’t get it anyway. Ok, done ranting. Geeez, now I feel that little pang of guilt. Where’s that NASCAR hat with the flames on the bill?
No, I will just relegate poles to dancers. That works better, I do believe.
Sketch: ”Jason’s Nude Pole Dancer”
Well, am I receiving an interesing number of visits, for my amazing shared knowledge about flyfishing or flytying? Nope, but about what I thought would be a transitory, aritistic novelty; a small defining look at us (Tony and me) a brief, fun moment…about tattoos…fish tattoo’s. Not those Koi ones…no, the resonating, freshwater ones. So, I will take a momentary hint and provide a couple more shots and then back to what I thought was the real intent of this blog. Just kidding!
Tony Muncy’s Tattoo by Jerry Ware of Atlas Tattoo, Portland, Oregon 2007 (See June 4, 2008 post too)
