David Siskind | Sunday, 18 October 2026
I’m overextended. I glommed on to every fishing adventure that presented itself, leaving a trail of unfinished tasks and languishing obligations. So far this year I fished Malaysia, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Virginia, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Florida (twice), and Louisiana. I’ve caught snakehead, bonefish, trout, stripers, bonito, carp, corbina, surf perch, bass, sunnies, ladyfish, and redfish. Even now, I’m off to Argentina to fish for golden dorado. Because some of these were new places for me, juicy new locations, I extended some adventures with touring, which has highlighted other issues. Jackie has ants in her pants and always hits the ground running. I have a plumbum - lead in my pants. It’s fear-based and infects everything. I have to fight it - always, the struggle between planning - and dreaming - and doing. My nature always favors the dreamer. To get along is to change.
Argentina
We finally landed in Buenos Aires at 6:00 am, exhausted, and took a cab to our hotel in the San Telmo district. The driver, Christian, saw my rod tubes, asked if I’d be fishing, and whipped out his phone to show me his pics. He was especially proud of a 25 kg golden dorado. Huge. I’ll be delighted with anything half that size but I’ll be bagging sights - waterfalls, glaciers, and exploring a new city for a couple of weeks before I fish.
Apparently fishing the Rio Dorado requires a lot of walking searching for pods of willing fish. While true the old saw “don’t leave fish to find fish,” it does not apply there. It is merely a statement of the obvious but can excuse staying with sullen or spooked fish even while stealing available time for exploration.
Balance
Should I stay where I am, where I see fish now or where I’ve succeeded in the past? That is the question. After all, the fish are on the move and may show up as feeding opportunities, light, tide uh, and time vary. I look for excuses to express inertia. That’s how they do it in the Catskills, mostly. Fishers line up and wait for the hatch. There it might be the best way to accommodate pressure, but it doesn’t encourage discovery.
A couple of weeks ago in Buras I spoke to THE GUIDES about it. They expressed a bias toward movement, looking for a concentration of fish or a fish highway to settle on. They sit still only when results are exceptional. But it’s tiring to move. Time is spent going to and fro instead of casting. New waters might be barren. Yada yada. I have to move my slider to favor more exploration.
Disorder
It’s all been upended. The prevailing order for nearly a century has been discarded, and we seem to be racing, headlong, into global conflict. I wish cooler heads would stop it already. Its so stupid. As our mid-term election approaches, everything becomes increasingly fraught. The Trumpers are seeing polls they hate - pundits argue whether it will be a blue wave or a red undertow, or, horrors of horrors, they will all be wrong. Either way the suffering and cruelty will increase - the beatings will continue until morale improves.
Tilapia
My friend Chloe reports that she has been catching tilapia right and left in the LA River fishing corn under a bobber. I had no idea they were in there. She fishes farther upstream than I do but maybe they’re everywhere. Maybe fun, maybe not. I should find out if they’ll eat something besides corn when I get back to LA. Besides I might see some carp in new places.
Cheers,
David Siskind