On a sleepless night spent surfing youtube videos, I ran across some obscure indie/documentary film called High Wild and Free. How could I miss with a title like that? I clicked the ok button on the remote. The doc had been filmed in 1950’s and was a travelogue / autobiography of this filmmakers outdoor experience in the mountains of British Columbia . I stuck with it for a while and even enjoyed watching scenes of he and his friends flyfishing a remote mountain stream.
The style of the film was narration over silent footage, kind of 1950’s Gadabout Gaddis the Flying Fisherman ( you can still find these episodes from the 1950’s and 60’s on youtube) meets the Red Green Show. Gadabout was my favorite Saturday TV show as a kid. Eventually after a few scenes of him and his friends fishing he got around to asking a question I had asked myself many times over the years.
He said …” I’ve been asked many times why I fish?” Answering his own question with narration over a clip of a him unceremoniously pulling a steelhead out of the river on to the bank. He proudly said “ I fish for one reason, to please myself.”
I’m still thinking about this answer…