Wisdom from the '30's

[Norm M]

I was partaking of one of my other hobbies which is reading old fishing books. This one is called

 

Just Fishing by Ray Bergman published in April 1932.

 

 

I found the following passage on page 306

 

" My note-books are full of incidents, some confirming the general rules which we have come to look upon as angling truths and others contradicting them. The absolute truth of the matter is that we do not know as much about fish and fishing as we like to think we do. No doubt many things of which we are not even aware have a decided bearing on the desires of the fish to feed or fight and it is these unknown quantities which upset our calculations and cause the exceptions which puzzle us."

 

Now I have never seen this book until 3 days ago and that passage seemed to be in a similar vein to some thoughts I expressed in an article I wrote for the last newsletter.

 

76 years later, all the innovations in technology, years of fisheries research and lots of knowledge added through rod and reel research by very thoughtful and innovative fisherman and that passage still rings true to me.

 

Of course, I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone made similar statesments 100 years before Mr Bergman did or 100 years after I did. To me that is the beauty of fishing, the neverending challenge presented by the fish to figure them out.