Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Frum Fishaholic
    The Frum Fishaholic
    The Frum Fishaholic
    Ebook162 pages1 hour

    The Frum Fishaholic

    By Phil Lumbroso

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Join the author on his lifelong journey, from the perspective of a self proclaimed fishing addict, that also happens to be an observant practitioner of Orthodox Judaism. Spanning 5 decades (and counting), multispecies freshwater sport fishing from lakes to rivers, canals to ponds, and eventually, the seas and oceans, all around North America, al

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFreshwater Phil
    Release dateAug 14, 2024
    ISBN9781068987212
    The Frum Fishaholic

    Related to The Frum Fishaholic

    Related ebooks

    Outdoors For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Fishing For FUN!

      Nov 20, 2023

      Fishing For FUN!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bonding Over Bass

      Oct 14, 2022

      Bonding Over Bass
      5 min read

    • Article

      Secret Order of Scup

      Apr 24, 2018

      Secret Order of Scup
      8 min read

    • Article

      On The Hook

      May 16, 2022

      On The Hook
      2 min read

    • Article

      West Coast Way Of Life

      Dec 14, 2017

      The west coast of Vancouver Island is one hell of a place. It’s cold, it’s harsh, it’s dangerous, and it will beat you down if you’re not aware of the surroundings. But I consider myself lucky enough to be born and raised here. My name is James Marti

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Conch’s Life

      Jun 13, 2017

      A Conch’s Life
      8 min read

    • Article

      Bass Fishing On Steroids

      Sep 13, 2024

      Bass Fishing On Steroids
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Lifetime On The WEST COAST

      Aug 19, 2023

      A Lifetime On The WEST COAST
      5 min read

    • Article

      Community Club Spirit

      Oct 11, 2024

      Community Club Spirit
      6 min read

    • Article

      Winter, HYPER-LOCALLY Focussed

      May 19, 2022

      Winter, HYPER-LOCALLY Focussed
      7 min read

    • Article

      American Summer

      Jul 13, 2021

      American Summer
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Fish For All Seasons

      May 19, 2021

      A Fish For All Seasons
      3 min read

    • Article

      Spread the Faith

      Jun 12, 2018

      Spread the Faith
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Father’s Day Thank You

      Jun 1, 2022

      A Father’s Day Thank You
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lucy Mantle

      Feb 17, 2022

      I GREW up in the wild west of Ireland where my parents owned a popular fishing lodge at Delphi. To anglers, it was a little piece of Heaven, with spectacular scenery, great food, gin-clear waters and abundant salmon when conditions were right. To you

      3 min read

    • Article

      Fish Hierarchy

      Sep 16, 2024

      Fish Hierarchy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Faith In A River

      Apr 17, 2020

      Faith In A River
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Fishing Ohana & Tying Flies

      Aug 1, 2020

      My Fishing Ohana & Tying Flies
      4 min read

    • Article

      Brad Whatley

      Feb 20, 2023

      Brad Whatley
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Fish For All Seasons

      Jul 14, 2021

      A Fish For All Seasons
      3 min read

    • Article

      Brains Trusts

      Dec 5, 2019

      Brains Trusts
      3 min read

    • Article

      Portugal. The Flyfisher

      Dec 28, 2021

      Portugal. The Flyfisher
      3 min read

    • Article

      Family and Friends

      Jun 1, 2022

      Family and Friends
      2 min read

    • Article

      Living Legends

      Jun 21, 2024

      Living Legends
      7 min read

    • Article

      Confessions Of A Salmon Angler

      Feb 19, 2023

      Fishing for river run salmon is unlike any other type of freshwater angling in New Zealand. For one there are not many of them and they don’t hang around like trout, at least not in the lower and middle parts of rivers. Another fact is that in any gi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Finding another 'HOME BASE'

      Nov 20, 2024

      Finding another 'HOME BASE'
      7 min read

    • Article

      Alii Agriculture Farms

      Sep 1, 2020

      Alii Agriculture Farms
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Good Old Days

      May 8, 2022

      The Good Old Days
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Frum Fishaholic

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Frum Fishaholic - Phil Lumbroso

      Preface

      How does being frum (observant Jew) affect one’s fishing? Simply put, in many more ways than one may think. I’m no rabbi, so anything I state in this book is purely my opinion, and for those of you that have more specific questions on how to reconcile fishing with halacha (Jewish code of law), my suggestion would be to check with your rabbi or rav.

      For the most part, sport fishing isn’t much of a frum Jew’s sort of pastime. Save for a handful of friends and a few acquaintances that I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with, most of the outside world is clueless about the nuances of balancing a frum lifestyle with sport fishing. Which was why I decided to write this book, based on my personal experiences as a frum fishaholic.

      Before delving into my first attempt at authoring a book on my lifelong fishing addiction and experiences, a few thanks are in order.

      First, I thank Hashem (God), creator of the world, for creating our amazing planet, its waterways, the fish we chase, as well as for giving me the knowledge, physical, and financial ability to have spent as much time fishing as I have. There is nothing besides Him.

      The earth and everything in it are the Lord’s; the world and those who dwell therein. For He founded it upon seas and established it upon rivers.

      Next, I thank my dear father of blessed memory, who was the one who first put me on to sport fishing as a young child. Being a bit older than most fathers, and more nervous than some others, he had all the time and patience for me when it came to fishing. I just wish we could have fished together more often. Included, I thank my dear mother going along with my dad’s plans, allowing us to go with him at young ages, as well as agreeing to us taking him out on week long trips in his later years. Next, I thank my brother, friends, and other fishing buddies, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the bank, boats, ice, and all the other crazy endeavors we’ve been through over the years. Some of you are mentioned by name, others just alluded to. Next, I’d like to thank my kids for coming along with me on so many outings from the time you were toddlers. I really hope that all the time we spent together will be remembered and appreciated throughout your lives.

      Last but not least, I thank the love of my life, my amazing wife, for putting up with my fishing addiction over all these years. Behind every good fisherman, there is a very tolerant wife, often holding down the fort, while we pursue our dreams. I have seen too many instances where spouses got in the way of their man’s fishing. No matter the reason, for the better or for worse, I’m not here to judge. But my wife has always been above it all, just happy to see me happy, no matter whether I got skunked, or had my best day on the water. Thanks again!

      Chapter 1

      The beginning

      My first memories of fishing with my father were back when I was a young child. He had a few old rods in our basement locker, a tacklebox with a very basic mix of lures and terminal tackle, a landing net, and an old style metal double minnow bucket with chain. For most of his life, he primarily fished old school style, using live bait. Mainly earthworms he’d catch the night before the outing, or a mix of minnows, frogs or crayfish that were usually available at the local bait shops near our fishing spots.

      I remember the excitement on the nights before our outings. We’d go down to get the gear ready, and then wait until after dark to go catch worms for bait in our back yard, using flashlights covered with red or orange cellophane, to avoid spooking them.

      Though I was not a morning person at all, when it came to fishing or early Saturday morning cartoons, I was up before sunrise, waking my dad before his alarm clock would ring. We are Jewish, but we were non observant back in those days, so Saturdays were when most of our early fishing outings occurred. Much of our fishing was done at the Long Sault Parkway in Southeastern Ontario, about an hour’s drive from where we lived in Montreal. We’d head out bright and early, often before sunrise, stopping for doughnuts at Tim Horton’s, back before they were the huge chain they are today. My dad always swore by those, unequivocally calling them the best doughnuts we could buy.

      I first remember catching some perch on the baited lines, but they were far and few in between. Hooking rocks on bottom, and massive bird’s nest tangles that mono line created in the hands of an inexperienced kid like myself, were the norm. He must have spent a lot of time untangling and retying, and not being the most patient of people, he’d often get a bit nervous. Not in a bad way, but enough to where I eventually tried to avoid mentioning tangles or bird’s nest until they were a hopeless mess.

      Eventually, he introduced me to fishing lures, tying on a small red and white wooden Jitterbug. In addition to practicing my casting, I was no longer worried about hooking bottom, nor getting fouled up in weeds, as it was a topwater lure fished on the surface. I still remember my first topwater fish, as if it were yesterday. I was casting shallow along a steep rock bank at the Mille Roches section of the Long Sault parkway. As usual, I watched my lure to try to make sure my retrieve was giving the crawling / gurgling action my dad suggested I maintain while retrieving the lure. In the gin clear water, I could see a smallmouth bass rise and chase my lure before exploding and crushing it at the surface. Not a big bass, it probably measured in the 10 to 12 inch range. But likely one of the most memorable bass I’ve caught over the many decades since then.

      Eventually, my parents found their way to Jewish orthodoxy, a much more stringent version of religious practice then I had been accustomed to up until that point. I was put into a Jewish school, where we attended 6 classes days a week. Saturday was our day off school, but as orthodox Jews, it is forbidden for us to fish on the Shabbat. Instead, we spent it at the synagogue. Basically, we didn’t have many opportunities to fish during the 10 months of the school year, except for a few days off school during spring and fall holidays. Summers were better, if we weren’t away at sleep away camp. We got to fish with my dad on Sundays, as he had a tight weekday work schedule. My younger brother was born five years after me, so he eventually joined us on our outings as well. In between, we had to content ourselves by watching some fishing shows on TV such as Bob Izumi’s Real fishing show, the original Canadian Sportfishing show with Italo and Henry, and Jean Pagé on RDS in French.

      As I got a bit older, around the age of fifteen, I got to start fishing on my own. We were sent away to Gan Israel, a Jewish orthodox sleep away summer camp in the upper Laurentians, which was located on a decent sized lake. Back in those days, the lake was sparsely populated, and the fish population was still quite dense. While younger kids were strictly prohibited from getting anywhere near the water outside of supervised activities, teenagers had more leeway. I spent a few summers shore fishing the lake with a variety of lures, mainly topwaters, which are still my favorite to date. Hundreds of rock bass, mixed in with the occasionally largemouth or smallmouth bass, and some sunfish. On rare occasions, perch or trout, when I’d switch up to using whatever bait I could forage, or casting small spinners. I easily fished 5-6 days per week, though only for a few hours per day, but enough to gain a lot of valuable casting experience.

      As my dad got older and busier with a business he had started later in life, the frequency of our fishing outings slowed down considerably. In my late teens, I just about stopped fishing for a few years, opting instead to hang around or party with friends, and eventually, with the love of my life that I ended up marrying.

      Life moved forward. I got married relatively early, just before my 21st birthday. My eldest son Ari was born just over one year later, followed by my first daughter Chani, a couple years later. At the time, I again found myself in a situation that didn’t lend itself to much fishing time, working long shifts during a 6 day work week, with only Saturday’s off. As an observant Orthodox Jew, fishing or working on Saturdays is strictly forbidden and out of the question.

      Due to my long work shifts, I started feeling

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1