Having had Scant Resources for Fishing

Two posts in one day would be too good I guess. When I hit the publish button it will probably be after midnight. But having finished the previous post 20 minutes ago, gone downstairs to put dishes in the washer, and I got to my thinking as I always do over this chore I appreciate for its regular need, I decided to post on resources for successful fishing.

In a way I'm respectful of the classic image of fishing being the boy with the stick and string tied to the end of it with a hook on the other end of the string and a worm on that, a piece of straw grass between the boy's incisors. As wildly enriched as the American fishing scene has become, and as bipolar as I am, since I can move from grand affirmations of global dreams, of fishing the world over equipped by the best, and then return to the boy with say a Zebco 202, I don't forget the guy who can't afford all this wealth thrown at him by ads everywhere. Wealth he can't afford and that seems to sort of make fun of him, or you could imagine worse motives, as if it's all a grand charade, the intent of which is to crush most of us by an enormous power of suggestion about enormous political power. Oh, gee. I forgot our great pride in the American dream. 

But this is because I've been there--unlike Mit Romney and many others. Not just as an eight-year-old with a Zebco 202 in fact, but as a 32-year-old reduced to a beat-up old fiberglass 6-foot rod in 1993 my brother Rick gave me, and to my wits in having taken two old Penn 716's, one green from the 1970's, and one gold and black from the 1980's, both broken, but, aha!--having examined each, I inferred that by taking the head off the 70's, and placing it on the body of the 80's, I would have a working a reel. 

That's what I fished with. It was all I could afford. I had been in the shellfishing business, owned nine boats during the 80's, then lost almost almost everything but my writings and books. I don't regret any of it. My reel contraption was perfect--head from the 70's, body from the 80's. During the 70's Americans still had an intellectual conscience, something that had better return in some form, and to which I'm committed to help bring back. Without it we'll get the hell we deserve--just like I did.

Anyhow, I'm with you if you're poor. And I'll tell you why--you have a mind. That's how anyone begins.

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