Fishing Through The Crisis

Fishing our way out of a depression

It seems pretty obvious what the topic of this issue’s column is going to have to be. Despite how much hand sanitiser you slap all over yourself, masking every other exposed surface and isolating yourself in the chest freezer (which possibly still contains the warm, dismembered remains of your spouse whom you had to murder after six weeks of enforced enjoyment of one another’s company), Covid-19 is everywhere, and it threatens us all in ways which we can hardly yet anticipate. I have already lost one long-planned weekend’s fishing outing because of the plague lockdown. However, I fear that the impact on our sport and all of those who make their living from it will be lengthy and serious.

Let us look past our Government, since this is more than they deserve. Generally, they do not withstand close scrutiny. I do not include the State Pres in all this, since he is at heart a fly fisherman himself, and therefore one of us. He has shown leadership, humility, guidance and sincerity all at the same time. He has been a true leader. Sadly, we cannot say the same for some of his lieutenants who appear to have advanced degrees in irrationality – or perhaps it is more obvious to some why you can buy shoes, but not those with open toes, or you could buy T-shirts, but only for your personal use. If there is logic there, then it escapes me.