Partly Cloudy

It looks like it going to be a great day here in the Upper Midwest. Not too hot, windy or stormy. Partly cloudy with temperatures rising into the mid seventies. Mrs. T is busy doing her thing and I'll go..... flyfishing or maybe birding with the Baron. Hmmmm.
Actually, I've been thinking "deep thoughts" about both hobbies. They are really very similar. To be successful you need to be observant. Close to nature works best. The best trout fishing is invariably away from the crowd. Birding is as well. You often find yourself in the most beautiful of places. Crowds of people might work once in a while but I suspect solitary or with one other person is best. You need to be quiet you know. Stalking really.

Both hobbies have their "technical" aspects like "hatches" and "migrations and specialized equipment You need to know how to "read the water" i.e. where to find you quarry. Both can produce stories of which I have more than a few. Like the time I caught a bat who was attracted to my homemade fly. Or when I was trapped against a cliff while two testosterone crazed elk had it out right in front of me. Or..well the tendency and the need to place close attention to things and the time to contemplate about them. This is why, for example, trout fishing has produced the only real "literature" in the fishing genre. I mean what are you going to do with a $70,000 dollar bass boat, 3 guys on a polluted river and 2 cases of beer?

I'm often asked what I find appealing about each sport. A number of years ago, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan , who wrote a best selling novel (Anatomy of a Murder), which later became a movie starring Jimmy Stewart, answered that question in a way I've always liked. I think his answer applies to birding as well as to flyfishing.

Testament of a Fisherman by John Voelker (Robert Traver)

"I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun.