stream thought

So many different reasons, of course, with countless books and blogs having been written on the subject. Common reasons given include "closeness to nature," relaxation, food, sport, comradeship and a psychological "calling" akin to a primordial hunting instinct, the last being a bit questionable, in my view.

There is, I think, a more fundamental reason. It is knowing something very deeply, not just intellectually but experientially. The intersection of many things at an instant: the trout's behaviour, the structure of the river and its currents, the shape of the river bed, the weather, the fly life, the expert use of rod and fly-line, the tying and presentation of flies, your own limitations, the sound of your own heart-beat, the structure of your own consciousness.

Fly fishing, in its deepest sense, is a phenomenological inquiry. Hence the need for restraint as well put at Classical Angler .