How blogging is like fishing

You might be wondering, how in the world can blogging possibly have anything to do with fishing? Well I have done both, and here I describe my view of each of these things, and perhaps even a basic philosophy of life and patience.

I love fishing, many of my best memories are with my friends fishing around the lagoons in the lowlands of Lagos, Nigeria.

If you like sport fishing, you learn that fishing is all about being patient. Sure you need the right bait, you need a good deep hole, you need to know your “secret” fishing places. But in the end you cast your line out there and wait, and wait some more… and some more….

For me the fishing trip was never really about the actual fishing. The first part of fishing is the adventure of “getting there”. There is also the enjoyment of learning to navigate your way through bush, and water and everything else for hours on end just to try and find a spot in the middle of nowhere but that only a few people have probably ever seen in their life.

Then there is the actual fishing itself. Sitting in quiet solitude, with nothing but your thoughts in your head, watching your fishing line, wondering if you will get any bites. Perhaps, pondering the meaning of life sitting in soaking rain...This is what fishing is like for me, and why I enjoy it.

I’ve been blogging for a few months now, and I think there are several similarities. Sometimes, I feel like each blog I write is like selecting the bait I will pick (the proverbial worm). I have no idea who will take the “bite” and start to read what I have written. It all depends on how you define a “bite” I guess.

But again, blogging, for me, is mostly about the “joy of getting there”. I already have a lot of funky thoughts and ideas that I have been writing for years. Writing what is on my mind is a great stress reliever for me. There are no deadlines or assignments, it’s all about the fun of chatting to myself. If no one else is reading it, oh well. I’ve never been the kind of person that takes others opinions to heart anyway.

Maybe, some day, someone will take a bite, and maybe there will be a payoff, but for now, I just sit patiently with my fishing rod cast into the pond, and wait to see what will happen.

For the record - I'd ALWAYS let my fish free.