Andy Dear | Thursday, 25 February 2021
A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece titled "Perspectives" It detailed some ideas I've developed over the years about how I view the act fly fishing, and in a broader sense, fishing of any type. I opened the piece with a quote from my good mate Alec Katzman. Alec, aside from being a professional golfer, a semi-professional satirist, observer of life, and all around provocateur, is also gifted with the ability to see things from unique perspectives. Perhaps this is why we're such good friends is because we both share the ability to skirt the lunatic fringe when it comes to how we view our respective sports....and the world for that matter.
Last week Alec and I had a two hour-long phone conversation catching up on each other's lives after having lost regular and direct contact during the year of the Covid. One of the things I love about Alec is his "mastery" of the English language. I put the term mastery in quotes because despite him having a graduate degree in Anthropology (which also happens to be my field of educational study as well), he has a unique flair for seamlessly blending proper English, hip millennial street slang, and copious amounts of old school profanity. It's a beautiful mix that delights the senses in a George Carlin meets Sean Connery meets Kanye West kind of way.
Anyhow, during the course of our conversation, the subject of discussion, as it always does, led to that of vintage golf clubs. Alec, through a series of serendipitous events, just picked up a one-off set of vintage Cobra irons made specifically by and for the legendary golf great, Phil Rodgers. It may however be more apropriate to say that the set picked him. I won't go into the deeper spiritual meaning of the timing and circumstances behind this particular acquisition, just know that there is one, and it's a story only worthy of discussion over a glass or three of Glenlivit at the Jigger Inn overlooking The Road Hole at The Old Course
Alec was lamenting about the fact he was going to have to re-shaft these beauties in order to better suit the modern game, and how given the lineage and condition of these rare and beautiful irons, that was almost a sacrilege akin to re-tempering the steel of the mythical Excalibur sword. When I pointed out that these clubs, much like a fishing rod were at their core, "merely a tool to accomplish a job", Alec quickly retorted in his inimitable style, "yeah well they're also a fu***ng weapon".
And you know what....he's right. In addition to being a whippy tapered stick, a propeller and shaper of line, an artists brush, a presenter of feather and fur and yes...even a tool, a fishing rod is indeed, also a weapon. For all the beauty it creates in the air and by delivery of the fly, in the water, it is also a server and deliverer of death that can be used under the control and direction of the user to, if necessary, seduce and extract life from that which lives below the surface to provide sustenance for the fisherman.
So, this begs the question, if a fishing rod is used as a weapon, as Alec suggests that it can be, does that make the caster some kind of waterbound angling sniper? All I have to say is I'm glad neither Alec nor I partake in the use of hallucinogenic substances, legal or otherwise, because with discussions like this, who the hell would ever need to come out of the rabbit hole to go play golf or go fishing.
Hope you're all staying safe and healthy,
Andy