The birth of Anglers and Hunters
Jun 2nd, 2010 by Scratch
It’s been 7 years since I took up angling. Unlike most I took to the sport as an adult, with little history to build upon. I was reintroduced by a fellow employee at a software company and was hooked immediately.
A season passsed, chucking and ducking spin gear on my local waters, and though I never saw a fish – I was persistent. My eyes were wide open, and the fish were secondary to the escape. I suppose this is why most people fish anyway.
Later in that year I was introduced to fly fishing. Having seen it from my couch, and in movies I had built a mysticism about it – believing it to be a sport of old men in earthy felt hats and plaid shirts. I wasn’t farther from the truth – as I watched Dick pushing a loop into the air and dropping a tiny dry fly on a lake only to see the rainbow rise and sip it from the surface. At that moment I realized everything I knew amounted to nothing.
I bought some fly-gear, taught myself to cast and joined a fly-tying club. Angling ephemera joined angling entomology, and the leather, wicker, silk and felt faded as I met dozens of fly-fishers who broke that mental mold. I was becoming one of them.
One of the most important things I gained from that exposure was an acquaintance who would become a close friend – my brother from another mother. Today we run FiftyNorth together as we take our experiences in fly-fishing and dive into the world of hunting, learning as we go.
The modern world of hunting and angling is a difficult one. With consistent pressure from animal rights, left wing politics, right wing government and a lack of funding for our resources.
We clamber yearly to our favourite fishing haunts only to find depleted waters, ailing fisheries and regulations blunders. As hunters we must navigate the politics of hunting, just to be met with the bleeding heart public who doesn’t understand, nor wishes to do so. The gauntlet is deep, but we forge forward.
We do so because the places we spend our cherished free time are both beautiful, abundant, and fragile.
While our favourite waters and prairie hunting areas may still be natural and remote, they are under attack. Ignorance, politics, and pressure are daily influences, and we as anglers and hunters must hold the line against threats to these places. Unchecked development, abuse, lack of enforcement and wildlife management are all the responsibility of the active educated sportsmen for whom these special places are sacred.
The next time you see an angler or hunter – ask them how they’ve given back to their province – to the lands that sustain their pastimes and passions… If they can’t give you an answer, we’d like to spend some time with them.
