Man, I’m ready to go wet a line. It’s almost spring, and the fishing bug is biting hard. And repeatedly. And with the pandemic still causing havoc back in the real world, it’s even harder to resist. My boss is very understanding, though, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take much arm-twisting to get approval for a mental health day.
Fishing fever is, in my opinion, a real illness. It’s just not one that can be cured by lying around in bed all day, sipping on tea and slurping chicken noodle soup. No, to cure a case of fishing fever, you actually have to get out of the house and find a good piece of water that’s full of hungry fish.
I’ve found that trout from a river are the best cure for fishing fever. If you have access to beaver ponds that hold brookies, that’ll work just about as well. Other people seem to prefer liberal doses of walleye as a fishing fever cure, but there’s really no wrong solution. The cure that works best is often the one that’s tailored most personally to the person suffering from fishing fever.
And just as there’s not just one type of fish that’s best, there’s also no correct method for administering the cure. When I was a kid growing up on the Wind River, I had the best luck using a bowfishing rig to get over my fishing fever. I wandered down to the river and bowfished for carp at every opportunity. I did it often enough that it worked as a preventative. As I got older and couldn’t find good places to bowfish anymore, I traded my bow for a spinning rod and reel. Lately, I’ve used a fly rod. It doesn’t matter what you use. Heck, I’m proof that it also doesn’t matter if you don’t catch anything. All you really need to do to get over a bad case of fishing fever is to go fishing. If you get out there on the water, you’ll be healed before you know it.
Of course, you’ll need to dose yourself regularly to avoid a relapse.
