I think there are merits in being slow to judge.
I was out on a river with a friend last season (or was it the one before?), on a fiercely windy day. It was easy to become discouraged in the face of that difficulty. We had fished a long stretch of river and he was tired, but I wanted to fish through the last pool near the road, before we walked back to the car. I had given up on the day, but for a last chance in that pool. He seemed to have done so too: Adjudged the day to be what it would be, even though we can’t have been far beyond 2:30 in the afternoon.
But I was wrong. He hadn’t yet passed judgement on the day, despite a comment about his sore feet. He went up ahead to pass the time, and he found the fish, and saved the day. I think there is a lesson in that.
At the beginning of his spring, I braced myself for the drought which the el-nino soothsayers predicted. I had passed judgement early. Perhaps not as wrong as a fisherman who encounters one river with a low flow on one day and declares a drought, but I forejudged it nonetheless. But I was wrong. We then got four inches of rain in two days and have been waiting two weeks for the rivers to drop and clear enough to drift a dry fly.
With three river outings since that big rain event, we have encountered few fish. Like yesterday when between the two of us we found just one willing Brown. And the outing prior to that where the boardermaster and I fished the margins in a river as full as our expectations, only to have those dashed.
So I could label the current river season as “slow” or “sparse”, but I think that judgement would be premature, just as our pronouncement of drought proved to be.
So how long do we wait until we declare something bold like “It is a poor season” or “this river has few fish in it”.
I don’t know, but suffice it to say, PD has owned a rod for a good few years which he was starting to declare not to be to his liking. And then he tried it with a fly-line I leant him…a heavier one I think it was….and judgement has either been deferred or perhaps even flipped to the favourable.
But once judgement has been passed, we close our minds to anything outside of the status or decision which we have declared. When we do that, we are less likely to have a good season, or enjoy the rod we have been deliberating over.
So might I propose, that there is pleasure to be had in an attitude of dalliance.
For one thing the current unfolding spring has been a sheer delight. Will we be plunged into the foretold drought before we get to enjoy it? I don’t know, but yesterday I spotted no fewer than twenty bird species out on the river without even trying; the flowers and trees in the midlands have burst forth; The evenings are cold enough for a jacket, but beautiful enough for a braai; and the rivers are looking spectacular.
There’s a spot where my colleague threw a fly repeatedly yesterday without result, but I can’t help think it was just bad luck. He may not have been dropping the fly close enough to the edge, and he might have done better if he approached more stealthily. So I haven’t passed judgement yet…I just need to get back there and try again. Perhaps a dozen times. Then I might be ready to pass judgement on the merits of the spot. Or not.
