An Angler's Commonality with the Fish
I have
been an angler for most of my life. It has made me much
more interested in the events that happen underwater.
Fishing is for me a way to learn more about the world
around me. Being air-breathing creatures we seem to have
little knowledge of or sympathy for those creatures whose
oxygen is found dissolved in water.
Isn't it true that among the creatures of the sea we have
the strongest emotional connection with those that breath
air: mantees, whales, dolphins and sea turtles. The
connection to the surface is as real for them as it is for
us.
I recently went fishing with my brother on the Columbia
River near Portland, Oregon. It was my first try at
sturgeon. The sturgeon is a large catfish-like denizen of
deep rivers and lakes. It's eggs are the source of the most
famous caviars and it's dense flesh is a delicacy at the
table, whether smoked or simply pan-fried.
As the size of the salmon runs in the Northwest have
diminished, the fishing pressure on other species has
increased. Once a second rate species for Northwest
anglers, the sturgeon now has a growing number of
admirers/predators.
Fishing for these creatures for the first time allowed me
to offer a fish, as bait, a food that I would eat: roll-mop
herring. For those of you that don't partake of herring a
roll-mop is a bismark herring fillet wrapped around a dill
pickle. Yum.
So one morning a few months back, I sliced a roll-mop in
half, one for me and one for the sturgeon. We both liked
it.
