Fly fishing’s an odd sport, one riddled with contradiction and burdened with a lot of expectation.

Plus it’s practiced by human beings, so it’s subject to all the irritating human behavior you also see on the freeway, in the workplace or in the checkout line.

Which is why this Auburn Journal article (via MidCurrent) so richly irritated me.

It’s a stunningly circular opinion piece where the un-bylined guide/author makes the usual generic noises lamenting the sport’s elitist image, says “most” fly fishers are nice folks, and then proceeds to skewer everyone who doesn’t think, act, and feel exactly like he does.

Basically, anyone who isn’t a guide. Bravo.

Some choice commentary:

I’m not sure where the “all fly guys have attitudes,” feelings originated, but my guess is it started with some of the fly shops.

I’ve walked into more than a few fly fishing stores over the years and had the ultra-snobby employees make me feel like I was nothing more than an ignorant pile of steaming cow dung.

He then moves on to beat up on dry fly fishers because they look down on everybody else (uhh, some of us just like to fish dries), fly fishing writers, and a few others.

First, anyone with an “all fly guys have attitudes” ideology is likely the one with the attitude problem. And while it’s tempting to counter his article with something like “Guides and are mostly nice people, but I’ve had a lot of encounters with guides who have treated me like a steaming pile of cow dung.”

But – whenever I read sentences like that – I develop a lurking suspicion that it’s not the target group causing problems so much as the writer. You probably should too.

So when our opinion writer finds himself suffering at the hands of fly shop employees, might it be because he acts like the steaming pile of dung he’s mistaken for? I mean, has anyone ever seen a customer do that?

The Ugly Truth

We encounter assholes everyday, and while I’ve stumbled across a couple of asshole fly shops, asshole guides and asshole fly fishing writers, they probably act that way because they’re assholes in every other part of their life too.

The point to all this? Don’t buy into the Auburn article crap. It’s trite, it’s ridiculous on its face, and while the piece was ostensibly written to bring more people to the sport, it’s actually a revelation of the writer’s own attitudes towards others.

Which really aren’t that pretty.

Next time you run into an asshole on the water, remember. He’s not a guide, a fly shop employee, dry fly snob or spin fisher.

He’s just an asshole.

[tags]fly fishing, guide, fly shops, assholes[/tags]

Posted in Opinion.