Fishing and the Spiritual

Fishing and the Spiritual

Many fly fishers know that the faith that we are going to catch a fish leads to a faith in the possibility of another, more precious catch, namely peace of the soul. So says Turan Tirana in his excellent essays.

Fish have always been seen as spiritual.  In Christianity the fish was used as a type of recognition code; one person drew half of the fish and the other completed.  Fish we eaten on the fast day of Friday because they did not count as meat.

Fish do live in another world, the Celts believed that lakes were the door way to the underworld, hence King Arther's sword being thrown in the lake for the lady to take below.  This in between world was and is where fish dwell.

An Assyrian tablet from 2000 BC reflects that fishing is a spiritual thing and adds this incentive; The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men’s lives the time spent fishing.

The migration patterns of fish must have puzzled the ancients.  Why would salmon suddenly appear, or tuna or a myriad of other fish.  For those of us who fish it does seem that fish move in mysterious ways; one day they are feeding on a certain insect in a certain area of a lake at a certain depth.  Even worse why is it one you can have two fishermen in boat using the same gear and one will catch and the other won’t.  If you have ever experienced this, it is most frustrating.

In that way grace in the religious sense plays a role in the religious sense plays a role in fly fishing.  Some anglers are ‘chosen’ others not, and when we are not chosen we pray.  When it works though we are aware that we are blessed.  Dimly we are at harmony with creation and at peace with ourselves.