MY ONE RELIGION:
AN INTERVIEW WITH
THOMAS McGUANE
J A M E S B U I C E
is a freelance writer and author
based out of...whereverJB When and how did you begin angling? Did you start with fly or
progress into it later?
TMMy dad was a fly-fisherman; so, that’s how I started. I suppose I was
ten years old at the time. Subsequently, I fished with all sorts of things,
including hand lines. I still really like to fish with plug rods and get a thrill
looking into my tackle box and scanning all the way from Devil Horse to
Badonk-a-Donk. But basically I’m a fly fisherman.
JBDid you realize at the time of the movie, “Tarpon”, that the resource
would be in jeopardy or that the popularity of tarpon angling would reach
the level it has today?
TMI may not have realized at that time that the resource was under as
much jeopardy as it is. We fully understood that there was a problem with
boat pressure at least 50 years ago. The population of the US has doubled
in my lifetime and grasping the accelerated pressure of man on nature
was hard to foresee until it was upon us.
JBWhat are your fondest or most memorable angling experiences during
the early years in the southern Keys?
TMI had so many wonderful days in the Keys that it’s a challenge to pick
one. Certainly, my first permit off Loggerhead (on a 3/0 tarpon fly) is right
up there. Before I had a boat, I used to drive to the flat on the Oceanside of
Ohio-Missouri Key in the evening. Watching tailing bonefish coming in on
the flood was an eternal thrill. Tailing mutton snappers behind stingrays on
the flats west of Woman Key knowing they’d eat a ham sandwich if you
could just make the cast. I’m lucky to have been there.
JBIn your opinion, what are the most detrimental threats facing the shallow
water fishery there (or anywhere for that matter)?
TMThe threats I’m most worried about are loss of inshore habitat, especially
mangroves, and boat traffic. Your passport won't solve this: you can run but
you can’t hide.JBHow do you view the benefit of organizations such as Bonefish and
Tarpon Trust in relation to the conservation of shallow water fisheries?
TMBonefish and Tarpon Trust has elected to pick up one corner of our
tattered natural world and do something about it, something for us and
something for the fish. Apart from serving our own specialized and idealistic
wishes, such action—by letting our bat do the talking—has symbolic power
and sets an example for others in the community. Our society’s love of
nature and animals has been obscured but it’s still there. In the days of silent
movies, all an actor had to do was give a cube of sugar to the horse and he
was a hero for the rest of the film.JBIt goes without saying that all sportsmen should be stewards of the
environment; proactively combating those seeking to upset the natural
world. At what point in your life did you realize the importance of harmony
in nature and begin considering the implications of man’s impact on
the environment?
TMI hunt and fish in order to be in greater harmony with nature. That has
been the case since I started. I need something to keep me embedded in
the natural world, even a game to play, and it’s my one and only religion. It
doesn’t offend me to be a predator as long as I feel myself to be in a
preordained relationship to the earth and its creatures. Anything that
threatens nature threatens all we have but our capacity for delusion makes
us think we can fix everything we ruin. People who fish without caring for
the world that sustains fish are not only ignorant and irresponsible, they're
not even fishermen. They’re opportunists bent on entertainment.
Amen.Thomas McGuane seems now a genteel, elegant uncle to Captain Berserko, his sobriquet in a
time of rebellion and debauchery decades ago. At 74, McGuane retains the tall, slender build of
the same man who in 1973 along with other literary notables including Jim Harrison and Richard
Brautigan created one of the finest films capturing the essence of fly fishing for tarpon aptly
named, “Tarpon”. Since that time, McGuane has received numerous awards and accolades for his
work in literature and conservation along with an induction into the National Cutting Horse Hall
of Fame for good measure. This year, at the 5th International Bonefish and Tarpon Trust
Symposium, McGuane garnered another honor, the Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award for his
work in significantly raising awareness for fisheries conservation. Following the Symposium, fellow
writer and BTT supporter James Buice cornered McGuane to get his perspective on conservation,
angling, and his relationship with the natural world.
Photo by Val Atkinson