We were out fishing on Charleston Lake the other day. Pretty, isn’t it?

It took a while to find just the right spot, but when we did there was no doubt about it. Both quantity and quality this time ’round — we were catching some of the largest sunfish I’ve seen. These were running pretty deep, maybe 20 – 30 feet down. I’d include a photo or two of the catch but they’ve mostly been fried up by now (the fish, not the photos).

I figure that it’s good planning to get some serious relaxing done before the “holiday” weekend, which typically ends up being far too busy (1000+ km to cover this time ’round) to provide any respite from the “daily grind,” such as it is these days.

But back to the fishing: while the catch consisted mainly of sunfish, we did catch a few perch as well. And while I don’t have any photographs, I can provide an illustration of one:

This is taken from a book by Izaak Walton that was first published way back in 1653. It’s titled the Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Take a look:

Anyhow, Walton provides descriptions (and helpful illustrations) of some familiar fish, such as pike,

trout,

and carp,

but also strange fish I’d never heard of before, like “tench,”

and “barbell.”

Now, it seems to me that “the contemplative man’s recreation” isn’t quite as tranquil today as it was back in the seventeenth-century, with four-strokes, water-skiers, and the like. What recourse does the contemplative man have nowadays? I guess the solution is really quite simple: for him to go farther afield, to those quiet riverbanks that exist beyond the reach of internal combustion and hi-fi stereos…

Well, on we go, then.