After years of trout fishing in various stages of life and with different people, I’ve developed a set of criteria to determine whether or not it’s time for a fisherman to lose weight. If you find yourself described by more than 5 of the descriptions below, you may want to hit the gym.
You look like a frog, even before you put the waders on.
You’re not the one taking your own boots off at the end of the day.
You need a fishing companion to remove the hook from your own landed trout because the fish is still too far away.
When laden with all your fishing gear, you find yourself falling backwards, SCUBA diver style, to get out of your car.
You literally have to psyche yourself up to get over a rock or tree trunk in the water.
You’ve fallen, and can’t get up, unless you wiggle out of your waders first.
Just gearing up leaves you winded – never mind the hike to, and in, the stream.
You stop fishing during the middle of a hatch, just to eat your own food.
Getting your fishing supplies on the way to the stream includes stopping for doughnuts, biscuits, or burgers.
Your fly fishing vest can no longer be zipped closed, though the zipper is intact.
You’re forced give up trying to get a fly that’s stuck in a tree more than 6” above the top of your head, due to fatigue.
You stopped attaching your landing net on the back of your fly vest, because that is now out of reach.