Aren’t you tired of staying inside?
You’d have to be! We’ve had a year of quarantine where many of us were confined to our homes indefinitely. Many of us had to make necessary shifts to how we lived our lives, attending and conducting work from our homes, purchasing groceries from online services instead of traversing past our front doors, and meeting up with friends and family online within the same four walls. Even with restrictions starting to lift and things slowly returning to normal, the prevalence of new COVID variants means that it still isn’t strictly safe to do many of the things we would do for recreation: go to concerts, hit the town, patronize movie theaters, all of that. To avoid going insane (and it may already be too late for some of us), we need to find something to do outside the realm of our domiciles, an outdoor activity where we can relax in a new environment, but one that requires only as much time or money as we’re willing to give it.
Freshwater fishing is an outdoor activity that puts you smack in the middle of a serene landscape, demanding only as much effort as you want to put into it. You can relax while fishing or choose to seek out more competitive game; you can catch and release fish for fun, choosing to keep your overall environmental impact low, or you can take a few home for dinner. Freshwater fishing is what you make of it, flexible enough to fit any schedule, and isolated enough to be completely safe in these trying times.
Has that caught your attention? Are you interested in hearing more? Read on to learn why freshwater fishing might be the perfect outdoor activity for you.
Relaxed and Easily Accessible
As opposed to saltwater fishing, which requires much more investment and is much more technically intensive, freshwater fishing requires a rod, a reel, any kind of bait, and a nearby body of water. You can stop at your local supermarket, pick up a cheap rod and reel for less than fifty bucks, and get straight to fishing without worrying about what kinds of bait are likely to make fish bite, whether your line is strong enough, or going about the hassle of renting a boat. It’s a casual sport for people looking to get away and only requires as much investment as you’re willing to put into it. If you happen to find you like it, you can always invest in more complex equipment, like a freshwater fishing tackle box from tailoredtackle.com. Should you choose to make it more competitive, while saltwater fishing offers a wider variety of game, you can just as easily choose to target specific fish in freshwater, like bass.
Individual AND Communal Sport
Fishing can be an entirely solitary outing, composed of only you, your favorite patio chair, a book you’re reading at a leisurely pace, and your favorite body of water. It can also be a communal exercise, one where you pop a few beers open with friends and talk about life while waiting for fish to bite.
If you’re looking for an outdoor, COVID-safe activity to spend some face time with people you haven’t seen in over a year, fishing may open the door to spending some time with them in person, as COVID is less likely to spread quickly in outdoor environments (though you could also always wear a mask). Unlike other outdoor events which are crowded with people, such as festivals and the like, fishing provides a good balance of opportunities for conversation and action; and if you’re feeling like it, you could always get competitive with your friends, try and see who can catch the biggest fish!
Testing the Waters
If any of this has piqued your interest, you may be destined to join the growing community of freshwater fishers here in the US. Pick up a fishing starter kit, look up well-populated bodies of water in your area, as well as local fishing regulations, and get to casting; you may find that you’ve picked up a new, addictive hobby that pays off in dividends.
