Experienced anglers know that even with their best efforts and attention to detail, luck can play a big part in their chance at success. That’s what makes angling such an intriguing endeavor, one that never gets old with its interplay of tides, moon phase, barometer, wind and weather.
Ask an honest angler what they’ve learned over a lifetime of fishing, and you’ll often hear a response like “The more I know, the more I know how much I don’t know.” That’s the ultimate lure of the sport, in my mind, and while you can do everything right and still not have success on any given day, there are factors that definitely affect your chances at success.
The ability to make a long and accurate cast, knowing how to spot nervous water, reading the action of feeding seabirds, and attention to details like frayed line, hook sharpness and properly tightened knots all affect our chances at success.
What’s often missed in this equation is politics and how the way we vote has real-world consequences for current and, especially, future anglers. I know I missed the importance of how my vote affected my fishing, especially in my early years. I, like many other anglers, get my battery recharged with a day on the water.
It is a reprieve from the day-to-day obligations of life. It is also a time to feel a peaceful connection to the beauty of the natural world that Florida is so fortunate to have in abundance.
Now, more than ever, I feel the urgency to speak out on issues I would often go fishing to forget. That became crystal clear to me recently when I heard two anglers who share my passion for the sport exclaim that they didn’t vote. One said he just wasn’t interested in politics, and the other didn’t think his vote made a difference. I was shocked to hear this and decided I needed to make the case for why this is a big mistake. Next week: the case for voting, taking part in the democratic process and how it will affect the future of fishing.
