The Rock (Bass) of Hope

This plaque follows me wherever I go: "The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope."  (John Buchan)

Indeed, it is the hopeful nature of fishing that I find so attractive in the end.  I do not mean "hope" as a code word for wishful thinking or fond imaginings.  I am talking about real hope--the stuff that is made up of agency, pathways and goals (as C. Richard Snyder has shown us).

The agency element is obvious.  I am a person who can fish.  There are ways to enhance that capacity. I can find my way to a lake or river.  A fishing video once reminded me that no one catches fish by climbing a tree.  You have to go where the fish are.  So I can get into a boat.  I can read the books and magazines and web-based resources that are obsessed with fishing techniques and strategies and tricks.

I can get the proper equipment.  I can do what I need to do in order to be able to fish.

The goal is also obvious.  I am not a great fan of fishing.  However, I am a great fan of catching.  That goal doesn't change.  I may adjust my strategies based on what I hope to catch.  Fishing for catfish is a quite different activity from fishing for walleye.  There is, however, little ambiguity about the goal.

The really attractive part to me is the alternative pathways to the goal.  There is no end to the options available to competent and well-equipped fisher person.  

We who fish are constantly ridiculed and disrespected for the sheer amount of equipment we accumulate--rods, reels, lures, fish detectors, fish attractors, and thousands of other pieces of paraphernalia.  This panoply of tools is required to meet the dozens of variables in any fishing situation--species, water conditions, light conditions, weather conditions, depth, temperature, phase of the moon, season of the year, and more.

That is the attractive part for me.  There is always another lure to try.  There is always another technique to use.  There is always another cast to make.  There is always another fish to catch.  There is always an alternative path to the future when the current one seems blocked.  The possibilities of fishing are only limited by the creativity (and the size of the tackle box) of the fisher person.

I am well-served when I remember this in my life.  There is always hope.  There is always another path to the future.  There is always another way to look at things.  There is always, as the speaker and photographer so memorably said, "another right answer."  This is one of the keys to real life

satisfaction.

When am I the most unhappy?  When I am sure that all the paths forward are blocked.  How do I get out of that dead-end thinking?  I can remember that brand new floating perch-colored lure in my box that I haven't yet tried.  I can remember the joy yesterday of catching my first rock bass in my life.  I didn't even know what it was until we asked someone else.  Can you believe it? Another kind of fish to catch!

It doesn't get any more hopeful than that.