When the roll sings

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The perfect angler

Fishing is a practical philosophy. Fishing is contemplation and stress, slow down and adrenaline, success and failure. Fishing is up and down. Fishing can be summed up in one word: life. The fisherman is the prophet of faith. He seeks a shimmer of hope in such dark water and most of the time his attempts are in vain. But he enjoys the attempts. Failure finds its highest form of expression in fishing. For only those who have failed nine times can eventually be a joyful person.

Paul Schröder and Thomas Niehaus go to their association waters on an eventing trip and cast their lines in the hope of a big catch. No water is too cloudy to stop them trying to fish there. No topic is too thorny for them to debate it extensively. And alongside angler Latin and ice cold facts, alongside Izaak Walton and Petrus, an eternal question remains: What are we doing here? Aren’t we all sitting at the flowing water of life, casting our lines, thinking of our fortune? And while they sit there, these two statues of patience and hope, hearing the enticing ‘come along’ cry of the Brown Owl in the promise of the night, trying to call the poor souls into the darkness of the forest, they both pull out their headlamps and prepare their eel montage, calm and focussed. Then they strike up a song. Or sometimes they don’t. It depends on the weather.

Fishing is a practical philosophy. Fishing is contemplation and stress, slow down and adrenaline, success and failure. Fishing is up and down. Fishing can be summed up in one word: life. The fisherman is the prophet of faith. He seeks a shimmer of hope in such dark water and most of the time his attempts are in vain. But he enjoys the attempts. Failure finds its highest form of expression in fishing. For only those who have failed nine times can eventually be a joyful person.