Fishing and Evangelizing

Know what you're fishing for ...

Go where the fish are biting ...

Learn to think like a fish ...

Catch fish on their terms ...

Use more than one hook ...

 

Fly anglers say that the most difficult aspect of fly-fishing is "the presentation of the fly." To catch fish, you must animate an artificial fly so it appears to be alive - or let it float "dead drift," if that is how fish would find it.

After acquiring fishing equipment and familiarizing yourself with it enough to know a rod from a reel, a line from a fly, it is time to start to practice.

First comes CASTING. Experts say, "To propel a fly line, your forearm and hand move backward and forward. The movement looks like a V with your elbow at the bottom of it. That is the basic casting stroke. It is exactly like the motion you would use to throw a chunk of potato off the tines of a dinner fork. Imagine that."

You want to try fly-fishing. Never mind the neighbors. Go outside, aim away from the house, and try throwing a chunk of raw potato off a dinner fork. "First," say those in the know, "throw a potato chunk behind you, up and over your shoulder. Still relaxed but with your wrist rigid, throw another piece of potato forward, up and away from you. If you try the potato exercise, you will see that the chunk takes off when you snap and STOP the stroke. The potato flies where the tip of the fork is pointing at the snap - stop. That's exactly how the fly-casting stroke works: The line flies where the rod tip is pointing when you snap - stop the stroke."

WADING. "Fish usually are closer than you think; if you cast from the bank, you probably will catch as many or more fish than you will by wading across a stream. If you must wade into flowing water, shuffle into the current sideways so the water has less surface to push against."

PRESENTING THE FLY. This is the most difficult task of successful fly fishing. "To catch fish, you must animate an artificial fly. Sometimes, you make a fly appear as though it is swimming or crawling or fleeing. When you're fishing a floating mayfly imitation, however, it has to behave like all the other mayflies caught in the current, drifting with no unusual movement."

LANDING AND RELEASING. "Reacting too quickly is probably the main reason fly fishers lose fish on floating flies. Seeing a trout rise to your dry fly or a bass attack your popper is so exciting that you may lift the rod tip and pull the fly right out of the fish's mouth." "Relax. Let the fish strike, and only after the fly disappears should you strike back. When you have a fish under control, reel in enough line so you can reach out to the fish. Keep the rod tip high."

These days most anglers practice "catch and release" instead of catch and consume.

I do not fish, but some people close to me do. These reflections have helped me consider the care with which good anglers approach their craft and the joy can take in it. Of course, the patience of such persons is often amazing me. Yet, the happiness when they catch what they are looking for is contagious.

This might give some context for some interesting statements in the Bible.

 

Jeremiah 16:14-16

14 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, "As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt," 15 but "As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them." For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors. 16 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they shall catch them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

 

Of course, Jesus famously said: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” (Matthew 4:19)