Fishing relieves stress, I promise
By Mario Guel
Phew! It’s hot out here. California is in a drought. Droughts cause stress. You know what is good for stress? Fishing. Yep, good ole’ fishing. Nightcrawlers in a can fishin’. Maybe some rolled up balls of sourdough on a hook fishin’. Or perhaps some lures trolling behind a boat fishin’. Yep, there are all types of fishing. Most of them help you relieve some stress. I promise! Give it a chance if you haven’t. Give it another chance if you have and don’t like it. Or smile because you have gotten this far down in the article and are getting serotonin shots in your brain because the moment you see the word “fishing” anywhere or on anything, you become happy. Yep! This is a fishing article. And you’ve come to right place if you want to hear about it. Although, for this late summer fishing discussion, we are going to talk fly fishing. Don’t get me wrong, all fishing is fun. I love ALL of it. But fly fishing can really help to relieve some stress. I promise.
The type of fishing where you must use the smallest stinking little hooks that are impossible to tight knots onto. Shoot, sometimes you might even need your reading glasses to tie those knots. The kind of fishing where you have to use annoyingly light leaders that snap really easy with the slightest wrong move. Oh, it gets better. The fishing where windy days can get your entire rig caught up in the willow trees behind you with almost every back cast. The fishing where a barb on a hook can pass by your face at 80 miles per hour multiple times because your buddy who is just a little downstream didn’t pinch their barb and they also didn’t look back when they started back casting. Watch those eyes! The fishing where you tangle up, again, and again, and again, and again! It is fun! I swear.
I love all types of fishing, but I fell in love with torture…and you can too! 
This got complicated. My article was supposed to be about how fishing relieves stress and how it’s super fun in hot weather. And it is! Please believe me. Fly fishing is fun! And I am going to tell you why. With various fly fishing techniques, you can catch trout, bass, striper, salmon, steelhead, panfish, leopard sharks, perch, halibut, and tacos. Wait…did I say tacos. Yes, I did. But ‘No’, you can’t fly fish for tacos. I’m just a taco and fly fishing junkie and I sometime confuse the two. But wait…I think I just figured out how I can make the most complicated type of fishing fun. TACOS! Go fly fishing, then go eat tacos! Sounds like the perfect day. And it is. I promise!
I’ve made a bunch of promises to you in this article. I vow they are real and true. Fly fishing is fun. While yes, it can be complicated, I assure you it’s worth the challenge. Life changes once you catch your first rainbow trout out of the Lower Sacramento River on a fly rod. It also changes when you’re swinging up steelhead on the Trinity River. Or even when you take some fly style bass poppers to the local scum pond and bang out some largemouth bass and sunfish. It’s just a bit different. Change is good. Change is good for stress. And with fall coming, the fishing season will just get better for all species of fish. Especially when you’re using a fly rod.
This article was supposed to be about fly fishing in the fall, and maybe even be used to promote my guide service and say, “Come with fish with me!”. Instead, I got sucked into sharing what makes me happy and help to relieve stress in my life. That is fly fishing and tacos. Maybe you should try it, you might relieve a little bit of stress. I promise.
