THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9409290213
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Tight Lines
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A fellow that I know was hanging around a bait shop, shooting the breeze and trying to pick up a little news.
``They really killed them at Oregon Inlet last night,'' another customer said.
``Who killed them?'' the fellow said. ``I was there. I didn't see anything.''
``What time were you there?'' the other customer asked.
``I don't know,'' the fellow said. ``From about four until six or so, I guess.''
``Oh, it was later than that,'' the customer said. ``Started about 6:30. You must have just missed it.''
That, my friends, is the sad, sad story of fishing news. It comes in many varieties, including ``You should have been here yesterday,'' ``You should have been here an hour ago,'' ``You should have been here 10 minutes ago,'' and ``You should be here tomorrow,'' but it all means the same thing: You've missed the fish.
Or at least you think you've missed the fish.
I have heard a dozen variations on the conversation related above.
``Oh, you were on the north side of the Inlet? They were killing them on the south side.'' Or ``They just came in for about five minutes, right before you got here.''
One person with whom I occasionally fish is constantly concerned that he is missing something a little further down the beach. Even when the fishing is decent where he is, he always wants to be somewhere else.
If he is fishing at Oregon Inlet, he knows that they are slaying them at The Point. If he is at The Point, with the rip all to himself and fish begging to be caught, he wonders where everyone else is and frets that they might be doing even better on the south beach or on down at Hatteras Inlet.
If he is fishing from a boat, he thinks he would be doing better from the beach. If he is on a bridge, then a pier seems to be the place to be.
He lives in fear of hearing those dreadful words: ``You should have been here yesterday.''
Even when he was there yesterday, he worries that he missed something, that he arrived too late, or left too early, to get in on the really, truly great action.
He never stops to think that his sources of information might be exaggerating just a bit.
Anglers don't want to lie. Most of us don't even intend to embellish. It's just that, well, we sometimes get a little carried away, not only with what we've seen but with what we've heard second, third and fourth hand.
We don't stretch the truth, exactly. We just put it in the best possible light, add a little drama to it, maybe, make it sound a little more exciting than it was.
Besides, we want to believe that always there is some great fishing out there somewhere, if only we can find it. So much beach, so little time.
And so, optimistic almost to the point of being gullible, we think that, yes, we should have been there yesterday. by CNB