Relationships

For me, fishing is all about relationships and there are two kinds that build from the experience. One is your relationship with others. A kind of bonding takes place on stream and lake that shares no other common ground. Any two or more people can build a relationship around fishing that they might not formulate elsewhere in quite the same way.

Enjoying the prize catch is in part hearing from another you respect say something like, "Wow, nice fish!" and mean it.

The other kind of relationship has to do with the environment in which you fish. It's not just understanding fish species and the techniques best used to catch them, not just about understanding how that species interacts with it's realm either. It's your total mindless (no thought) experience with the beauty of the whole place, the setting, the weather, the time of day, the water--everything.

Relationships. The photo I provide here was rendered from the original in Photoshop using some of the enhancement tools. I've given it the title Elderberry Skies. It's one of my favorite fishing images.

The father is Sandpoint artist, Dan DeAlba and that's his son, DJ. I asked this young boy how he spells his name. "It's simple," he said matter of factly, like the young scholar he is, "D...J," and then walked on.

###Dwayne K. Parsons