The PFA
Once again, It seems
I am the last to know…. Last Saturday morning, precisely February 22, 2014, I trundled
down to the local fly shop to schmooze a bit. I was as usual met at the door by
one of the men of the shop who with every courtesy under the sun, got a chair
and sat me down in the front row of some festivities that I knew nothing about,
but were to astonish me. And, because of my broken-down hearing, I could
understand not a word of what the young man was saying as he sat there, portentously,
in front of a banner that repeated over and over “PFA” and some silly slogan about a fly. The
event, surrounded by a perfect swarm of young people intent on what this guy in
some sort of fly fishing uniform was proclaiming to the ever-present video
camera, went right over my head.
I don’t think I
ever have felt so “out” of anything and so, in a moment of official pause, I escaped
to the front of the store. Here I caught my host at the shop and asked just
what the hell was going on!
He told me that
this was the “signing” for the first season Tour of the new PRO FLY ANGLING, an organization to do
for trout what
Bassmasters has done for warm water fishing and what the PGA
has done for golf: instituting national tours of professionals competing for
prize money.
All these young
people, having been “accepted” for the first tour later this year, were here,
in this fly shop, to sign on.
Immediately the
question arises: Is competition like this good for fly fishing? Since last
Saturday, I have learned that many object to the idea—and often vehemently.
Opponents generally
agree that competition has nothing to do with our sport, which is bucolic and
solitary in nature.
So, what am I to
think? My first rush is to resist the idea as alien to everything I have known
in seventy-five years of throwing flies. Now after those many decades, my
fishing days are over. I can’t safely do it any longer. Hamlet had it exactly right when he taunted
Polonius with his “most weak hams” My hams will no longer do the job, and so I
must just stay home and blog like this about it.
In my initial moment
of proud disdain of this PFA idea, I forgot what has always been my
responsibility: to encourage the young. Never to disparage them out of hand.
Let someone else do that, if they must.
Anyhow, why should
not fly fishing be competitive? Everything else is. Think of the great and
distinguished fishing competitions in Ireland, of the match fishing in England.
Think of the fly casting competitions that have been with us since the coming
of the knotless line and guides on the rod. We compete in every thing we do.
Everything we do for
pleasure—for sport—someone ends up wanting to cash in on, even make a living
off it.
And there is always
the dream, or fantasy, of “celebrity”. If it is a madness of contemporary life,
how shall we blame a talented young fly fisher for wanting a bit of the
glamor? I know; I was there, dreaming
that dream of being a famous fishing writer and directing a flawless production
of a classic drama. I was ready to compete. And all these years later, I can
still feel the drive to blog the blogest and to be noted.
So, why not have the
PFA!
Which is not to say
that something like this can’t go wrong. Like the aspiring writer who begins to
sound like a Kreh rather than a Gierach, the dangers are there to be avoided.
For instance, I
understand that manufacturers propose specialized tackle for these competitive
tours. I have not mentioned that each
competing pro is accompanied by his “caddy” who carries and services all the
angler’s gear, keeping him fishing constantly. I’m loath to see a caddy with
all manner of bizarre equipment that might insult a trout.
And then there’s the
critical issue of use of the water. What’s to be done about the regular
fisherman on open public water who happens to be in the way of a Pro as he
ploughs up the creek, his caddy in his wake?
I have found that
young anglers are apt to forget how and by whom their fishing has been fostered
and preserved. They tend to be narrow in the range of their social thinking. I
have found that they understand private property well enough, but public property? Hardly. The PFA should
strive to be good for public values. I hope they will.
And I hope against
hope that these competitors will try to talk the talk of their sport decently
and turn away from the vulgarisms and fast talk that we hear replacing the
great tradition of English in angling discourse. Let them be decorous.
I hope to that they
will dress seemly for the videographers who will never be far behind.
I would remind
them that they turn fly fishing into a spectator sport at their peril.
And dare I hope that
they will not forget, and will want to hear from the likes of me, how once we
fished….
Most of all, I hope
that when, in their competitive zeal, they encounter my ghost on the water,
they will not try to push me off it.
