Man, did I have a nerve-wracking fishing experience last weekend. I had a good trout hooked. I saw it jump, and it was a nice one.

I got it all the way on top of my net. For the good 2 seconds. But the fish was too big for the net. It was lying on top of it. Like it were on top of a tennis racket!

After tasting the fresh air for those few seconds the beauty just jumped off the net and back to the river, as the leech was already well stuck on my net.

Now, I better state here that my net isn’t a big one, otherwise you might think I’m bragging too much. Since I’m bragging here just a little =D

There I was standing in the river holding my empty net and it all was sinking in. You can imagine, that I was just shaking from all the excitement.

For the moments like this, there is one excerpt from a great old book that applies perfectly. It’s from a book by Juhani Aho (first published in 1921). He was an author and a flyfishing enthusiast.  I think his text is so spot-on on the days like this. I’ll try to translate it for you:

Fishing, as any other sport,
is a pleasure when it’s entertainment,
but a strain if it’s passion. 

Your mind must not,
in order to rejuvenate,
get out of balance even then,
when a big salmon gets away.

You must be able to sigh
– not bitterly,
merely slightly melancholically,
and sit down on the river bank.

That is a pretty big lesson to learn. And fairly noble one =) I want to live by this and not get bitter. Or at least I will try.

The excerpt in Finnish:

”Onginta, niinkuin muukin urheilu, on huvina hauskuus, mutta intohimona rasitus. Mieli ei saa, voidakseen virkistyä, joutua tasapainostaan pois edes silloin, kun suuri lohi pääsee. Täytyy voida hymähtää, ei katkerasti, enintään alakuloisesti, istua rauhallisena rannalle […]”
– Juhani Aho, Lohilastuja ja kalakaskuja

An interesting note. If I’ve understood right, in the book when he talks about fishing for “salmon” [lohi] it actually means trout [taimen]. In these old stories around end of 1800 and beginning of 1900, trout was called salmon in Finnish language. Just a random side note.