too much information

There is another aspect to the nature/nurture debate, I've decided, and it relates to tenkara. In fact it relates to all fishing. In fact it relates to the very experience of living itself. Which brings me round in a circle. Much like the last fish I caught which swam round and around my waders on the end of my line. Am I losing you? Sorry, it's the mood I'm in. Let me explain.

making sense

This blog was never intended to be a technical endeavour, I'm more interested in writing about what it feels like to fish tenkara, or at least my own way of tenkara. Others are far better equipped than I for the other job. The writings here are mostly my way of straightening out my thoughts and making some sense of the fractal fragments of fishing time snatched on the water. It is very humbling to me that a few people follow, enjoy and learn a little from my blog, and very exciting when I learn that a new traveller has been inspired to journey the tenkara path.

Where does nature/nurture fit? Well, when I travel the short way downstream to where my own tenkara journey began, I can read again my thoughts as they came to me back then, starting out. 

"the simplicity of tenkara has changed my experience of the waterside. Gone are all the concerns over fly lines and reels and how far I can cast. The burden of these responsibilities has been lifted from my shoulders leaving me feeling loose and supple and, well in a way - younger. By this I mean that this feels like fishing as it used to when I was a boy. Before a disposable income and market forces intruded on the fun. So now I am free to travel far and travel light in search of adventure.." 

feeling burdened

And here is the problem. 

I'm starting to feel burdened again. Burdened by information. And it's my fault. You see, when a passion takes hold it's natural for us to want to learn all we can around our subject, read all we can - and there is some excellent tenkara resource out there. 

Pretty soon though our heads are buzzing with information and we are in danger of confusing ourselves on the water with the abundance of theoretical choices available to us. 

T.S. Eliot has something to say about this: "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" 

When I was a young boy my father guided me to fish, but allowed me the space to develop my own instincts on the water. After a break from angling of some years I came back as an adult only to be dismayed by the amount of prescriptive directives shouting at me to fish this fly! Buy this rod! Catch more fish! Catch bigger fish! 

rediscovery

So when I came across tenkara it was indeed as if a weight had been lifted. Here is a space I thought, where the child in me could rediscover some wonder and learn to learn again by personal observation and happy accident. 

There are other ways to learn -  by rote, by prescription, by micro-managed direction from experts. 

But for me this lesson is somewhat dry and tastes of little because the thinking has been done for me and the journey is not mine. This dulls the instinct and denies intuition, which I believe to be amongst our most valuable gifts. By treading our own path we can stimulate instinct, embrace intuition and sweeten the taste of success.

I am happy now. I have remembered my father's lesson. He taught me to be my own teacher. After all I'm a nature boy at heart.