Short Cast: Karma neutralizer, part 2

0:00Thanks for listening to the Tenkara Cast. This is a short cast where we talk for just a few minutes about your favorite subject, Tenkara. This episode is made possible by your purchase of Tenkara USA rods, lines, and flies. the most popular episode we've had so far in the Stankata cast has been the episode about the karma neutralizer the idea that yes we're out there hurting some poor fish and we might be able to find ways to kind of help neutralize the karma, if you will. And in the first episode, or the first part of the karma neutralizer, I talked about how when I get a little bit hurt, which is not uncommon, I'm going to go out and I'm going to slip on a rock or poke my arm with a branch and I'm going to get a scratch. And I see those as really good opportunities to kind of neutralize the karma that I accumulated by catching a few fish.

1:11A couple of people responded with some more ideas, and I've been thinking a little bit about this subject, and I thought it would be good to do a part two because getting hurt is not the only way to neutralize your karma. In the first part, when I first talked about the karma neutralizer, I also talked about picking up trash, and that's something I wanted to elaborate on. when I go fishing, rather than getting hurt, one of my favorite things to do is to kind of take care of the environment a little bit. And I probably could talk a little bit more about the idea that, hey, with Tenkara, we're not carrying a lot of gear to begin with. We're carrying a two-ounce rod and, you know, a couple ounces of line and spool and maybe an ounce or two of flies at the most. So very little equipment. We have all this extra capacity to carry weight. Why not carry a bunch of trash? So one of the ways to neutralize karma that I wanted to share about was just collecting more trash and perhaps even organizing cleanups. So I think a stream cleanup, which is something that we do pretty often here, is probably one of the best ways to neutralize a lot of karma in one go because you go out there and if you really spend a little bit of time looking at the ground around streams you're going to see a lot of trash and it's amazing because you might be on a casual fishing outing you might not notice all that much but once you start looking down you really start seeing a lot of trash so I've kind of developed a little bit of a habit I don't always do it but I do it often enough where I'll bring a kind of large garbage bag that I grab and I put inside of my backpack. And especially when I'm out there and I start noticing trash or maybe the fishing is a little bit slower, I'll just spend some minutes picking up trash and filling up the bag. Or sometimes when I kind of walk up the stream quite a ways and then on my way down back to my car, I'll just pick up as much trash as I can. So that's something I wanted to encourage everybody to do. Just good for all of us. You know, we get the benefit of seeing a clean stream. Next time we go out, we go out there and go fishing. We feel good about ourselves and we're kind of doing something for others as well. The other thing that I wanted to suggest as a way to neutralize the karma, if you will, is to teach somebody. I think, you know, like we we often talk about the benefit of fishing or outdoor activities and like myself as many other people believe that if we can get more people to enjoy the outdoors and it doesn't matter if it's fishing or climbing hiking you name it but when you're out there enjoying the environment that's when you really start caring for it and he and the hope here is that the more people that are out there noticing the effects that we have on the environment, because they're fishing, because they're hunting, because they're doing other things, the more people are going to care and take action. They're going to clean up the streams. They might vote for people that are in favor of taking care of the environment. They might sign petitions and that kind of thing. So I think it's important to cultivate that community of people that are going to care for the environment. So One of the suggestions that I have today to help neutralize karma that comes from catching a lot of fish is to teach somebody to care for the environment.

4:57Teach somebody how to fish. Take somebody out when you get a chance. And I think that's going to create new ambassadors for the sport, but it's also going to cultivate this community of people that really care for the environment they're in. And we're going to be creating new stewards for the environment when we do that. So take somebody out fishing, pick up a bunch of trash, and you'll feel better about all the fish that you're catching next time you go out. So that's just my thought for today on this little short Tenkara Cast. before i could hardly wait to greet the day up and out the door the leaves are falling the woods are calling trees are tall and the autumn colors and the mountains know my name the mountains know my name the mountains know so there's a small part of the song called Limbo by Takenobu. Check out his music at takenobumusic.com.