Why Fishing?

I never thought I'd be a fisherman. Growing up, the sport of fishing was something I viewed as just a notch above barbaric, and at least in some small part, backwards. As an English-major I admired Hemingway for his prose, but not for his obsession for catching Blue Marlins off the coast of Cuba.

I was never a particularly outdoorsy guy, and I just kind of figured I'd end up living in or near New York City, or some other large city. So it's surprising in some small part to even me that I'm so taken with fishing. And there's no single reason why I have started, or why I'm sticking with it so much, but instead a couple:

1. First and foremost, I love being on or near the water. Maybe it's because I grew up near the Chesapeake and the inlets of the Potomac River, but I'm most at peace when I'm near a big body of water. I mourned moving to Pennsylvania as a kid because I was so far away from the beach. I missed my friends, I missed my school, I missed my old house, but just as much I missed the open water. Fishing only carries me so far through that need. I've been talking for a while now how I want a boat. I tell my friends how if I won the lottery, I'd disappear off the Earth by buying a big enough sailboat that I could hop islands in the Caribbean and just disconnect for a while. I'm sure if I lived closer to the water now I'd have already bought myself a boat and I'd be out on the water damn near every weekend. My lawn would be knee-high and I'd be out on the ocean. And I'd be happy.
2. I love learning how to be more self-reliant. I figure if I learn how to go out and fish then I'm just that much more independent. And I figure if I can teach my kids to be independent and self-reliant in the world then I've done right by them. The last thing I'd want to do is raise two otherwise healthy and smart children who were either too frightened or too disgusted to fight for themselves in the woods.
3. I love any hobby where I get to obsess over gear. I just get all geeky and happy when I walk in to a place like Bass Pro and can stroll aisle after aisle of different fishing gear and try to figure out what it all does, and if I can use it. I don't need to even buy it. Just looking makes me feel bliss. This is not something I reasoned out before I started fishing, but it's one reason why I like it now.
4. But most important to me, right now my two kids beg me to take them fishing. They love spending time with me. I know this isn't going to last. At some point I'm going to be a horrible embarrassment to them. At some point, their friends, their school activities, their own lives away from here will take all of their attention and suddenly I'm good for lending them the car and doing their laundry.
   
   So I want to cash in on every moment where I'm still important enough to be with. Taking them fishing, I get to sit in the still and quiet of nature with my two wonderful children, and just, be with them. There's no need to yell, or scold, or even talk if we don't want to. We can just sit and drown bait all day.
   
   
   

Yesterday, after four hours of sitting on some rocks by the Conewago Creek in the mid-October sun and feeling happily baked, my son turned to me and said "Daddy, make sure we mark this place on the map. I want to come back here again with you. Even if we don't fish, I just want to come back here with you." I know some parents who'd give their eye teeth to be that in demand from their kids. The happiness from that moment warmed me more deeply than that beautiful autumn sun. And, you can bet every dollar you have that the minute I got in the car I marked it on the map, and I will make sure I get back there with my kids.

The fishing itself, that's all secondary. I wouldn't care if I caught nothing but boots and twigs for the rest of my life so long as I also get to catch moments like that with my kids too.