Fishing, A Dying Recreation?

Is fishing a dying recreation? It seem that way. I see fewer and fewer young people coming to Canada to fish. Particularly young men and boys. Surprisingly, I have seen a surge of women who are trying fishing for the first time and that's terrific, but where are the younger guys? It seems as we become more urbanized young men are no longer as attracted to the sport. The cost of fishing may be prohibative to some but perhaps we aren't exposing our boys to the outdoors and fishing as we should.
My first fishing experiences were magical. I was taken on day and weekend trips all around Rainy Lake. We camped and had the most delicious lunches on the shoreline. We caught fish, picked blue berries, watched the wildlife, went swimming and just talked. Just talked...with my greatgrandfather,grandfather, dad and uncle. One on one with the men I looked up to most. They taught me how to fish but they also taught me how to be a man. Men spending time together is something that we are missing today. Yes many guys travel and fish, they've done it for years. If one gets sick or worse, the group just gets smaller. They no longer recrute new members to pass along their experience and wisdom. It isn't that the older men are excluding the younger, I just think that the younger guys are not as interested in the outdoors as they once were. Additionally, the younger fellows feel that their elders don't have anything to offer them in their new digital world. That concerns me. Robert Bly wrote in his book "Sibling Society", "We cannot imagine invisible gifts anymore". Young men who are raised in a female dominate home or urban setting no longer see the importance of male role models or influences(the ivisible gifts). Dad's are often absent or working 100 hours a weeks to support the family, most teachers are female, most kids of divorced parents live with their mom's. This is why Mr. Bly believes that urban families are female dominated. More than 60% of northamericans live in the cities now. Men are now thought of as stupid, childish, selfish, and uneccessary primative boffoons, (see Homer Simpson, Al Bundy, any guy in most TV commercials, just take a moment while your watching TV and you'll see). Bly also says in another of his books, "Iron John"
So many roles that men depended on for hundreds of years have vanished. Certain activities, such as hunting, (fishing) or pirating, no one wants him to do anymore. The industrial revolution has separtated man from nature and from his family. The only jobs he can get are liable to harm the earth and the atmosphere; in general he doesn't know whether to be ashamed of being a man or not.
Sounds a little melodramatic do you think? I don't think so. Men aren't obsolete and they must assert themselves in positive ways with their children. At one time children witnessed what a man could do while their fathers worked the soil on the farm, or they were artisans in the community. Today men head to work for countless hours, away from their families who never see them work. The kids never see the fruits of their labor. Money is not a guage of success. Time, health and family happiness should be our the goals. In the pulp and paper mill where I work, the only things my daughter sees of what I do is a bunch of smoke stacks blelching out pollution and a horrible smell. Our kids no longer know us at our best, working hard, being inventive, cooperating with others and exerting tremendous energy to provide for our families. That is why it's so important for us to take our kids, particularly our sons, into nature, where we are at our best. There we can teach them what is truely important. How to be men.
Take your sons fishing. Take them camping. Show them the magic of nature. Our young people are afraid or don't understand the outdoors. That is perhaps why they tolerate natures daily destruction and overdevelopment.

Some Great Reading on These Subjects:

Iron John: By Robert Bly
Sibling Society: By Robert Bly
Tree: By David Suzuki
Fishing With My Old Guy: Paul Quarrington