A Fish and Chat meetup hosted by Cast a Thought at Mousehole Lakes in Kent, England.
Photographer: Emli Bendixen for Bloomberg BusinessweekThe Doctor Will Send You Fishing Now
As health care systems around the world come under strain, physicians are turning to a much older form of social medicine.
Less than an hour into my first fishing expedition, I feel my blood pressure climbing. Despite the encouragement of Dave Elstone, my coach, who’s corrected my rod skills several times, the fish seem to sense I’m an easy mark. As Elstone lobs clumps of bait into the lake, I see shadows taunting beneath the surface, mere inches from the line — they’re taking the bait but not getting hooked. Are fish capable of trolling?
At some point it ceases to matter. Attempting to keep the bright-green float in the right spot in the water is curiously meditative. The reflections in the lake — dark trees preparing to come into leaf with a scrim of blue sky above — are mesmerizing. I’m too distracted by the birdsong to partake in Elstone’s trash talk with a more seasoned angler nearby. It feels like minutes, but when I glance at my watch, almost two hours have passed.