Careful Who You Tell to Find Their Own Fish

The house where I lived inside Harriman State Park was 200 yards from the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River - one of the best rainbow trout fishing rivers in the U.S. The river provides wonderful habitat for mayflies and stone flies which the trout love to eat. Fishermen from all over the country come to fish Idaho’s Henry’s Fork.

I fished nearly every day and caught numerous rainbow trout with the largest being 24 inches long. One mid-July afternoon, I fished in the river with about 8 others fishing nearby. I waded out to a wide spot of the river near a deep pool. Whenever I noticed a swirl on the water (caused by trout feeding on mayflies) I cast near the swirl to tempt trout to my fly. A swirl formed about 30 feet from me and I cast toward it. I stripped my line in to keep it tight. There wasn’t a fish strike on that pass, so I cast again to the same spot. That’s when I heard a voice from about 70 feet away say,

“Hey, go find your own fish!”

I looked toward the fisherman and asked, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

He answered, “I said go find your own fish! For the past 10 minutes, I’ve been tying on a new fly to catch that fish!”

“Really?” I asked.

“YES, really!” He answered.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.” I said and quietly waded back to the bank to find another area to fish as I thought I had given adequate distance between me and the other fisherman AND there were other fish feeding around him. I got out of the river and decided that was enough - I didn’t want to fish anymore. I stood near the parking area until the fisherman returned to his car. I wanted to say something to him, even apologize again, but decided to leave as I was afraid of saying something unkind. Because of the rudeness of this one fisherman, I didn’t want to go fishing for two weeks. He turned me “off” of fishing.

The day after this man told me to, “Go find my own fish” I was back on duty as park ranger patrolling parking lots to empty trash cans, check restrooms and make sure all of the cars had paid their park entrance fee which was indicated by paper slips on their windshields. I noticed the car of the fisherman from the day before. He hadn’t paid his entry fee. I pulled out my parking tickets and left it on his windshield and said to myself, “Be careful who you tell to go find their own fish.” Later that day, another ranger encountered the same man who was complaining because he didn’t think he had to pay to enter the park because, “The fishing isn’t all that good this year.”

As Christians, we carry the mark of Christ. When we act Christ-like toward others it may be noticed and appreciated. However, when we act in ways that is rude or unkind, they notice us even more because of the mark of Christ around our necks, on our t-shirt, notebooks or cars. Remember to bring honor to the mark of Christ that you carry into the classrooms, restaurants, gyms and neighborhoods because together we are all fishing to be the people of God.