Fishing the Serengeti

Some of you might be surprised to learn that the original title for "Running Wrecked" was "Fishing the Serengeti." Yeah, kinda out there as far as titles go. That's why, in their infinite wisdom, my publisher changed the title. But the concept behind the first title is still there in the book, of course. That being, that Phil is a fish out of water in the situation he finds himself in. He is a figurative fish swimming in a place he shouldn't be.

I re-took up fly fishing last year after a long hiatus from it and I'm finding I'm a bit of a fish out of water with the whole fishing thing. I think it's that I don't do it enough to get good at the casting and reading the river and "matching the hatch" but I do the best I can. I dutifully ask my local shop "what's biting" and Mike just looks at me and sets me up with about 700 different flies to try knowing that I'll lose most of them in the trees or to my not so "improved" clinch knot.

But I'm trying and I'm learning and like Phil I'm learning that learning is all part of the game. That you have to do in order to improve. That the game of life is one long, never ending homework assignment. But at least I get to do this homework standing in a stream.