Henry David Thoreau said, “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” This quote illustrates that there is much more to fishing than catching fish. Indeed, fishing gets us in the great outdoors where we become active participants in nature rather than simple observers. Fishing is a wholesome activity that offers us time for reflection and the opportunity to commune with nature and to enrich relationships with family and friends.
This book, like other fishing books, cannot contain everything about the subject because fishing is a vast and varied field. To illustrate the amount of information available, consider that my book shelves contain six books focused solely on fishing for a single species, the muskellunge, and those books don’t tell all there is to know about muskellunge fishing. Still, The Smart Guide to Freshwater Fishing is full of practical information that will help the novice get started in the sport and broaden the knowledge base of experienced anglers. My expectation is that after reading this book, you will have more fish at line’s end.
A number of years ago, my brother-in-law, Chris, and a friend had planned a week-long fishing trip into the wilderness region of New York’s Adirondack Mountains. At the last minute the friend had to bow out of the venture so Chris made the trip alone. When I asked his wife how she felt about the solo undertaking, she replied, “Of course, I’m concerned, but he always comes back a better person than when he left.”
Yes, fishing truly enriches a person’s life and makes him or her a better person. Who could ask for more?