Day 83 - Pissed Off!!

After coming back from my in-laws in Virginia, I opened the mailbox and was greeted with the Jan/Feb issue of Fly Fisherman. Hurrah!!

After unpacking the Trout-mobile, and watching an episode of Fly Rod Chronicles, I found some time to peruse the magazine. One of my favorite sections to read are the reader comments under the heading Tight Lines. Let me tell, they let a doozy come slipping in this issue.

I'm going to be judgemental and sit in the big chair for a few minutes, so please stay with me. Why Ms. Valdez from Dallas, Texas wrote to Fly Fisherman is beyond me. The title for her section is called Sublime in Lime, and it's a pure bitch session of how her husband took her fishing just outside of Aspen, Colorado. It reeks of that crap reality TV show the Real Desperate Housewives, you know the spoiled rich women who are about as shallow as a glass of water.

She states that she was celebrating her 15 year anniversary and decided to let her husband plan the trip. The end up going to a historic inn just outside of Aspen, Colorado. Now here comes the bitch session: the wallpaper is too old, the furnishings weren't up to her taste, fly anglers give violent jerks to otherwise peaceful innocent trout, her husband didn't let her buy the minx coat that she wanted (seriously it's in there).

She then goes on to say that they decide to do a float trip down a river. She was excited that her guide looked like a cross between Kevin Costner and Harrison Ford. She spends the next two hours drooling over him. After that gets old, she decides to make her husband and the guide's life hell because she feels "held hostage by two trout warriors" on a floating prison with no hope for escape. She asks stupid questions and then belittles the men with even more stupid ponderings.

Finally, she drives the dagger home by questioning their fishing ethics and comparing the experience of understanding what kind of fish was on the line (whitefish vs. trout) before it came to the surface with racial profiling. I'm sorry, what??!!! How in the world can identifying a fish on the line be anywhere near racial profiling? I feel offended by the mere mention that she thinks these two things can relate! Incredulous!!

How can this even get into the Letter to the Editor section in the first place? All the other letters talk about fly fishing and how it cured their hangover, or how effective the conservation approach to streams is going, or giving thanks for a solid piece of advice that "netted" a trophy trout. What was her impetus for writing this? Was it to try to say that anglers are horrible and that we should all stop fly fishing? Should we compare this to the PETA comic book that villanized our fathers for taking us fishing? Or was this just an excuse for the editors to play devil's advocate and get readers all riled up.

This may just be the young newlywed talking, but I thought a healthy marriage is built upon love and respect and support. I for one am glad that I have a wife that supports me in my passion of fly fishing. Thank you for letting me vent. I think maybe tomorrow I'll write a letter to the editor, asking why on Earth would they even consider printing that letter.