I've Really Got The Bug!

I am really going over the edge with this dream of fishing in Lake of the Woods. That is in June. Now I am doing nothing but dream about it. I am dreaming of walleye, northern pike, muskies, bass, sunnies, crappies, and now rainbow trout. I spent a couple of hours looking through the Cabela's fishing section. I was looking for a fly rod to add to my collection of fishing poles that is currently 300 times bigger than it has been for my entire life. By adding a fly rod, which to date I have not, I would increase that 300 times by 33%, if that makes any sense. I did purchase a two hour video on the subject from the Cabela's sales representative whose name is Greg, a grey haired fellow, about my age, who has nearly forty years of fly fishing under his belt, or better, in his waders. I watched the DVD straight through stopping frequently it to get a handle on knots, weights relative to poles and lines, leaders, reels, and casting techniques and more. It was a Cabela's produced piece and I have to say that it was not all that well done. It was dated 2002 and that was interesting, but still it was good enough to get my attention. The trout being caught in Wyoming rivers was particularly interesting. Oh, baby! I could see my self doing that with some friends of mine... perhaps even my wife...nahhhh.

I wonder...does anyone actually eat the fish they catch anymore? I remember a time when you fished so you could eat fish. Odd the old days. On all these videos all the fisherman are working hard, spending hundreds of dollars, and hour after hour to catch a certain fish. Then, when they have landed it, they practically fondle the thing to death. Finally, with great affection (and sometimes even with a kiss on the nose of the fish) they magnanimously release this poor beast back into the water so that it can again be tortured and released. Seems to me that sometimes this catch and release program, or ethos, is more "torture and release for further torture" than anything else. (I am sure better men and women than me have thought this thing through.) After all the fish is fighting for its life! If fish can be scared I am sure they are scared when they are hooked and dragged or pulled out of the water. What's a camera, dude?

Anyway, I am dreaming of catching, filleting, and eating. After some twenty plus years in seafood sales, distribution, and marketing, I know a thing or two about cooking a trout or a salmon; any fish for that matter. That is the deal for me. I like the thought of the art of fishing. I love the idea of cooking and swallowing.