The Best Thing I Learned This Year

So there I was trailing behind my wife, being introduced around and then abandoned to my own resources in a back eddy of the main party. There were several others like me, rising sporadically to feed as a tray of canapés drifted by but mostly staying still, doing our best to blend inconspicuously with the background.

Occasionally a gregarious woman in full plumage would waft through with arm pats and smiles. At one point she looked at me and said,”Oh you poor thing, has she abandoned you?”

What I thought was best not revealed but what I said was,” No, not at all. These canapés are certainly delicious.” And then jokingly as I scanned the others in the alcove I said,” I guess we are not really at our best with small talk. What I should do is just make an announcement: Who likes to fish? I’ll meet you down stream from the punch bowl.” She laughed minimally, but extremely politely, and then drifted away.

The big guy perched awkwardly on the edge of the settee put up his hand. “I like to fish” he said. And so began a very pleasant hour.

Lots of fishing writers can write lots of words telling you in every detail how to place a #18 Baetis tied to the end of an impossibly fine, sixteen foot leader right on the nose of a brute, monster, hog, lunker, or for our friends from the UK, a rather decent Brown Trout.

Not me! I’m offering some practical advice to get you through those awkward seasonal festivities. You see, we few, we happy few, we damp-footed band of brothers, we’ll stick together. So the next time you are in a room full of strangers, try just saying,” Who likes to Fish?”