WHY?!
// June 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Rants, Videos
…Anglers too often think of casting as a series of dos and don’ts. We are told, and believe, that if we adhere to the dos, and avoid the don’ts, our casts will succeed. So we stand a certain way, hold the rod at a certain angle, point it a certain direction, move the arm to a certain stopping point, and so on…
These days, A lot of people are asking how, where, what when…but seldom do you hear anyone asking WHY?
I hear a lot of people asking others what to do in a given situation, but not really caring to find the reason WHY?, all too many times. I have received a lot of fire with the catch phrase of filipinoanglers.org – “We Catch, They Watch!”. This is a very typical example of people not asking “why?”. Behind all of that, the nod from me when it was proposed took a few minutes to give, but the thought of the hidden message still lingers on, after 4 years.
I”m starting to think that anglers, like myself, who always ask the question are in short supply, endangered and close to extinction. So many people are going into Sport fishing, but want to be spoon-fed. A lot of so called “expert/competent” anglers we have in the Philippines and around the world are like this, creatures who love fishing, but want to be spoon fed with the information. The information may or may not work, either way, they attribute their success or failure to the place they fish in, confident that they did everything by the number, made no mistakes and by all accounts, all they have done in their honest to goodness “try” is the right way to go.
You see, I didn’t have forums to go to when I was starting out. I was stuck with no one to ask because I knew the guys around me, God bless their souls, didn’t know more than I did. So came the question; WHY. I did not only ask myself the question, I tried to answer it on my own.
Finding the answer to something that has been bugging you for the longest time is an epiphany of grandiose proportions, multiplied by the sum of your eagerness to try it out and prove you were right; you got yourself a real situational conundrum.
Now think…I was in elementary when I started getting the urge to go fishing on my own, devoid of a parental unit that always thought his way was the best way, and the only way. It’s really hard keeping your focus on the textbook in front of you and the teacher standing beside you, screaming her guts out that you were day dreaming again, yet there I was, in a little creek in my hometown, waiting for a catfish to pull my little float, watching intently, not making a sound, even when the flies were almost unbearable. I didn’t really catch anything, but I didn’t know any better then so I went on and on this exercise of futility for most of the summer. Before I left for Cebu, I saw someone pulling catfish from the same hole, One after another. It was the first day I asked myself WHY was I not catching anything.
After class, I would go home and ask myself over and over again…Why?. It took a while for me to figure out that catfish were bottom feeders, fishing for them should be on the bottom, not on top, I never would have figured it if I didn’t ask myself the question. Now, the bigger question remained, Why would I not be able to catch catfish with a float?…the result of that is something that I still use to this day and is one of the foundations of my bait fishing, for anything that swims, Yes you can catch bottom feeders with a float on your line, and yes you can use it in saltwater fishing as well, but you wont figure it out until you ask yourself the same question…WHY.
For me, the only thing that changed is the capacity to acquire the toys I need to learn something new. Time is the most expensive element in the equation, we all have jobs and we all get salaries, the time spent on using our toys for our pursuits is the luxury; not your shiney Stella, not the Accurate that you don’t know how to cast, its the time you spend fishing.
Fast forward, present day. I have most of the toys I want; started the largest online Filipino fishing community, disagreements with views with some of the members, split up, trudged on, now with a leaner team and with the mission ahead well plotted out, I find myself in a crossroad yet again.
I have spent a lot of time litterally growing anglers, with some help from exceptional and like minded anglers such as Bong Chua (a well rounded angler, but really, everyone knows that he is a snakehead angler to the bone) I believe, We have made a difference, something that is being felt in the Filipino Sport Fishing scene.
It’s time for me to grow and again ask my favorite question…WHY.
I have given word of my coming inactivity in the administration side of things, I will be in the background and in the shadows from now on, embarking on my own adventures, honing skills further, learning new things, going to places I’ve always wanted to visit, doing the thing I love the most.
The Tagline tells the story behind all of this if you look past it. It challenges you to ask the question WHY. ultimately, the person who says “We Catch, They watch!” is the person who learned to ask the question. We catch not only fish, but answers to questions people just watch and not do anything about, learn new things and experiment while others look on so they can follow soon after.
A new chapter starts for me and for filipinoanglers.org, new personalities will rise, new fish will be caught, new adventures, new friends, all in the world of Philippine sport fishing, whoever it will be, I have a smile in my face knowing that at one time or another, I have done something to put them there.
…Of course, anyone with experience knows these instructions fail to produce good casts as often as they succeed. They fail because we ask the wrong questions and get hung up on rules. Never ask “What do I do?” without also asking “Why?” – ED JAWOROWSKI
WE CATCH, THEY WATCH!
http://www.filipinoanglers.org