Catching Wisdom

Anglers and Aquinas

The Pennsylvania fishing season began on April 6th, and the PA streams are filled with anglers.

Potter County is one of the best fishing areas in Pennsylvania. Its fishing streams have much to teach about acquiring wisdom.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the wisest of saints, was once asked about acquiring the treasure of wisdom. The saint responded, “Choose to enter by small rivers, and not go straight into the sea; for difficult things should be reached by way of easy things.”

Boy Fishing by Winslow Homer. 1892.

According to the Potter County Conservation District, the county has over 3,000 miles of waterways. Nearly 60 streams are designated as Class A Wild Trout Streams. Potter County also has the Eastern Triple Divide, which forms the starting point of the three major watersheds: the Allegheny (to the Gulf of Mexico), the Pine Creek-Susquehanna (to the Chesapeake Bay), and the Genesee (to the North Atlantic).

My Aunt Liz and brother Nick shown with a fish after Aunt Liz caught this fish at the Annual Fish Rodeo in Ridgway, Pennsylvania.

Learning how to fish is an excellent example of how it is best to begin with the easier things and then progress toward the more challenging things.

For instance, when learning to fish, it is best to begin by learning how to cast the fishing line overhead with no trees around. In time, one can try sidearm casts or flip casts in more challenging terrains.

The Angler by Winslow Homer. 1915.

Aquinas advised that striving after goals that are too difficult at first is like going straight into the sea, where the vastness is too overwhelming.

My Mom shown with a walleye, the biggest fish we caught all day, on Lake Erie in the summer of 2023.

As fishermen cast their lines into the nearly 60 Class A Wild Trout Streams throughout Potter County, think about Aquinas’s advice of entering by the smaller rivers so as to acquire the treasure of wisdom.

My Dad and I after a good day of fishing a couple of years ago.

Here are a few practical ways to grow in wisdom: spend time with the elderly, read The Book of Wisdom, ask for help, and begin with easy things and then move to more challenging things.

In other words, “Choose to enter by small rivers, and not go straight into the sea; for difficult things should be reached by way of easy things.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

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Fr. Luke Daghir