Talk about the passion

Found a couple of interesting items today at MidCurrent, the fly fishing newsblog. The first is an interview with Diana Rudolph, a saltwater tournament angler. I sometimes think competitive anglers are missing the point, sacrificing experience for results, but this lady clearly has all the bone-deep passion that the sport, at its purest, breeds in its adherents. It can seep into even the humblest elements of or preparations for fishing:

MC: What do you have in your pocket when you’re standing on the bow of a skiff?

DR: “Lip balm. Plus I put all the tippets from the tarpon I’ve broken off in my pocket; I don’t know why, I just like to have them at the end of the day. If I’m bonefishing, a tailing fly and a heavier fly. No cell phones, no pliers, no voodoo freaky good luck charms. Although I am quite superstitious. I have special necklaces, I have to wear the same hat, I have to eat the same breakfast. And I always kiss the fly. Especially if I move to a different flat or something, then I kiss it multiple times. And if I tie a fly for somebody, I always kiss it before I give it to them. There certain things that just get you amped up about fishing.”


The other thing that caught my eye at MidCurrent (actually on the same page as this interview) was a quote from Tom McGuane:

"What the predator knows when he wakes up in the morning is where the wind and light are, and it is impossible to do anything but hunt when they are aligned."

This morning, I checked the weather forecast and saw that the heat would break Wednesday and that Thursday would dawn with pleasant, cool temperatures in the 50s. Once I read that, it seemed like I hardly had a choice but to go hunting when the small game season opens Thursday morning.

This promise of the wind and light aligning, so to speak, seems less like an arising opportunity than a kind of confirmation, where, at least momentarily, the things around you fit, or call to, the thing you are. In a way, the opportune moments for exercising your passion promise not to divert you, but to realize you.