There's always been discussion about who is and who is not a great angler, or the qualities it takes or does not take to achieve saidsame exalted status. My advice is to pass the oxygen, calm down, and think for a minute. Do anglers need to be great? Who are the people dispensing the criteria for greatness? And more importantly, who are the people who blindly pursue the ideas of other people? I think greatness is far less important than the joy of the angler.

Let's bring angling back to the basics, which are primordial hunt, conquer, and provide food. You cannot pick salmon off a stalk! I have seen many self-appointed great anglers sniff condescendingly at ancient Native American salmon spearing practices, as if the latter were truly convinced that tricking a cold- blooded fish into striking a bunch of feathers tied on a hook was a triumph! Not very tolerant, is it? So I suggest that maybe a desireable characteristic for anglers to consider is that tolerance for fishing methods that do not harm stocks whatsoever is another's rights. Witness a handline bonefisherman in Bowen Sound on Andros and a flyfisher 100 yards away..is one inherently better?

Another situation I saw firsthand was an angler's refusal to accept that big tarpon off Sanibel's beaches were only grabbing live herring. His bucktails and DOA's were refused in the high sun and ultraclear water. He sat down in the skiff and skulked. I moved to live bait and released 3 big fish. I feel he was not passionate about his angling, but rigid. I would think that battling a gamefish in celebration of their "gameness" is the very essence of desire and passion, but an insistence on the catching them only the way the angler expects is not passionate-its saying that his method is more important than the fish themselves.

But more importantly, there is no right way. I think it's good to decide for yourself what is important. Greatness is relative- who has more of it?.... A TV personality or a dad whose son sees him best a bass in the backyard on a spincasting outfit?

Be your own guide!! Jan Maizler www.flatsfishingonline.com