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On one of my first fishing trips as a boy, my dad asked if I was having fun fishing.
"It’s not the fishing I like," I am reported to have replied, "it’s the catching."
However, as I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate that the process can be more satisfying than the results.
That is one of the lessons that fishing teaching us. There are many others.
I believe we can find deeper meaning in almost any activity if we try hard enough. In fishing, one doesn’t have to try all that hard, actually, to find lessons of significance that apply to all of life.
We cast about for opportunities. We fish for compliments. We agonize over the prize fish that got away. We get hooked on all kinds of things, positive and negative.
Fishing is a prominent topic in the Bible and in great literature. It is an honorable occupation, a popular way to relax, a hobby, a habit, a passion. We fish, therefore, we are.
Let’s get started before this gets any deeper. We’ve kept this book short for three reasons:
First, there isn’t that much meaning of life in fishing, anyway.
Second, you would probably rather look at the pictures.
Third, you would definitely rather be fishing.

Go where the fish are
Once when I was fishing, I kept getting my line caught in an overhead tree, which prompted my partner to remind me, "You’re not going to catch many fish in a tree." The same goes for business or any other enterprise—you’ve got to go where the fish are if you hope to be successful.

Take the bait
Why not just boil and eat the shrimp, rather than use it for bait? If you have to ask that question, you just don’t understand.

Fly fishing
Fly fishing is to pole fishing what big league baseball is to slow pitch softball, or what a gourmet dinner is to a pancakes-and-bacon breakfast. There’s nothing wrong with either one, but one takes more skill and better equipment.

Work at it
Fishing, like nearly anything else done well, requires more practice than theory. The best fishermen would rather fish than read about how to fish.

Not boring
Fishing, like baseball, chess, or classical music, is boring only to those who don’t understand it.

Lord, give me patience…
If fishing teaches any virtue especially well, it teaches patience. The fisherman can’t do anything to force the fish to bite. He can only keep tossing the bait out there and wait for some action.

…and do it now!
Patience, as most fishermen know, is an overrated virtue.

Hope, faith, and fishing
Fishing also teaches about hope and faith—hoping that the next time you toss out your line will be the one when the fish grabs it, and then actually believing that will happen.