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So, is fishing boring?
WHEN I get into conversation about fishing with those who know nothing, or very little, about it, one of the first things they say is, "Fishing! It must be so o o boring!"
Well it isn’t.
My first response is to ask if they think four million of their compatriots choose to be bored for a significant part of their life. That part of their life, incidentally, that is leisure time.
I also tell these same people that I go fly-fishing for trout and grayling and their, often thoughtless, response is, “I wouldn’t like it – sitting there doing nothing for hours on end.”
Honestly. Fly-fishing sitting down! Where have these people been? When I lived in West Yorkshire and fished the rocky Pennine streams once or twice a week my fitness levels were tip-top.
Wading upstream through boulder strewn waters, up to my waist in the fast flowing, freezing River Calder, casting constantly…it is hard work and light-years from boring.
That is fly fishing dealt with. More sedentary styles of fishing appear to be boring but are actually anything but that.
A casual stroller along the canal bank will see a man sitting, surrounded by all his fishing paraphernalia, a rod stretched out in front of him and a little orange float tip peeping out of the water.
He is sitting patiently watching the float tip intently. He is not bored – mainly because he knows what he is about. He is at the culminating point of long preparation.
He has brought knowledge and experience to this point and is watching his float not with boredom but with intense anticipation. He knows how deep the water is and has a fair idea of the nature of the bottom (gravel, mud, weed, rocks). He knows which fish are in the water in front of him.
He has worked hard to attract those fish around his bait and has used his knowledge of a fish’s response to food to encourage them to feed.
He has worked very hard at the waterside – organising, arranging, planning and making decisions. He is an angler so he doesn’t use these terms to refer to what he is doing.
He has just ‘gone fishing’ and ‘sorted out his stuff’. So he is now at the point where the float will dip under the surface any second now. It may have sat there for 10 minutes without moving but NOW it is about to dip under… anticipation.
During those 10 minutes he will have been hard at work thinking: why has the float not dipped yet? Have I got the bait deep enough?
Should I try a smaller, larger or different bait? Have the small fish been chased away by the better fish yet? I wonder what she put in my sandwiches.
Then it goes under and a nice roach is brought to the net. At this point the casual observer will have no doubt that fishing is definitely not boring.
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Weather for Beverley
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -4 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
