Size doesn’t matter. I’m sure it’s a phrase we’ve all heard. I’ve desperately wanted this to be true. For years, I’ve told myself that it is true. I’ve even tried to convince my friends that its true. I don’t know if I ever had them convinced or if they were simply amusing me just to get me to shut up about it. I did for some time believe it to be true. But you know what, size does matter and don’t let anyone tell you any different.
Maybe I believed so much in this misconception because I only caught small fish. Ok, that’s not the case, I’ve caught big fish. So maybe it’s a case of those fish being few and far between and I have to convince myself that its ok to keep catching small fish; that size doesn’t matter. The truth is, all fish are great, big or small but there’s something about the big ones that can take your breath away. I can catch steelhead all day and if they’re small, I’m ok with that, but then I hook into that one big one and I’m awe struck. My heart races faster, I get weak in the knees, I start to sweat, I get disoriented and unsure of myself; like it’s my first time.
A close friend of mine recently caught his personal best steelhead. Now if size doesn’t matter, then why would it matter that it was his personal best? Right, it does matter. Matt is just like I am in that every steelhead is a great one. Although I wasn’t there when he landed the beast, the excitement he portrayed when telling me the story and showing the pictures told me right away that this one was different. We do not talk about the little ones the same way we talk about the big ones. The big ones are something special. The big ones are the ones we brag about. The big ones are the ones that spoil all others. The big ones are the ones that, no matter how many more fish we catch, we will never forget. Size doesn’t matter? Don’t kid yourself; size matters.
One Man Obsessed 