Angling Trade Spring 2016: Stupidity, Bloodsport and More

by Mark McGlothlin on April 27, 2016

in Culture, Books, Art

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Perhaps it’s just that more of the articles resonated with things we think about around our camp, but the Spring 2016 Angling Trade issue seemed a bit better all around this time around.

If nothing else, put down your phone, turn off your computer or tablet, kill the television, and read the first and last articles, the alpha and omega if you will.

The first article, Fly Fishing Through the Stupissance, touches on a topic near and dear to us – the fact that many of us are becoming less mentally agile, less personally capable, less able to assess problems – much less solve them, even more stupid, as we march through the digital age.

[Wandering sidebar: my core point being that we’re surrounded by so much (digital media) noise in our world today it’s increasingly difficult to sort out the really good, the really important, the really meaningful information (or you could easily substitute relationships, art, knowledge, experiences, entertainment and more) from the deluge thrown at us 24/7. Combine the onslaught of noise we all face daily with a lazy bent toward instant gratification ingrained in society and you have a toxic brew that leads to no good.

Those unable to see the changes sweeping society have to be living in a literal cave off the grid somewhere, which conceptually sounds damned tempting many days, or have their heads so far up their digital arse recovery is impossible. /end mini-rant.]

The final article, Bloodsport, takes a worthy look at yet another reason some fish. And while we’re true blue, longstanding C&R guys, keeping a pan sized (insert species of choice here) or a hatchery steelhead satisfies primal urges, at least on some days, like nothing else can.