I’ve spent many an hour blanking on the Bristol Avon, considering what keeps bringing me back to the river? Is it just a series of random events, or something more sinister and selfish?
I started my fishing ‘career’ at the age of 6 when my mum bought a fishing rod from a shop in Looe, Cornwall, whilst we were on holiday. The very kind chap in the shop showed us the basics in the estuary outside the shop and that resulted in a lifetime’s obsession with our wonderful sport.
But why?
In the infancy stages of learning to fish I was driven by a desire to catch fish, any fish. I could happily sit for hours on end tiddler bashing, getting covered in slime and not caring one iota about the size of fish I caught. It’s only now I realise that my mum must really have loved me, being prepared to wash and clean my smelly and stained fish-covered clothes!
From there I started fishing matches with a local club. It was a good way to learn a great deal about tactics, techniques and the fishing mindset. The drive here was purely competitive, mainly driven by a desire to catch more than a certain individual who’s dad sat behind them for the whole match, ensuring his son was always the one to beat! Did this start my obsession with fishing?
No, I don’t think so, but it was one of the catalysts of my progression. My day of satisfaction came when fishing the biggest junior match of the year, the mighty ‘Cotswold Championship’, I finished first, beating my fierce rival with no assistance apart from my own drive to succeed.
My point is that after over 6 years of match fishing I somewhat lost the enjoyment of fishing, it became a numbers game. As my life changed direction, and I found other things to occupy my free time fishing took a back seat in the first 2 years of University. As pressures in my life became greater I felt myself longing for a release from all the stresses and strains of everyday life.
My drive to do more fishing was now to escape everyday life, I was watching Billy Connolly in Canada recently, and he pretty much summed it up in a way that I never could. He was out fishing with his ghillie for Salmon in Alaska (a day of blanking):
“People say to me you must get a lot of ideas when you are fishing?”
“Never had an idea in my life when I’ve been fishing, fishing is for the opposite reason, I get a lot of nothing when I’m fishing, it shuts out the whole world.”
So my fishing career then progressed at great speed as I joined the working world and needed my ‘release’. I spent many days fishing lakes catching bags and bags of carp in commercial style fisheries. It didn’t take too long for me to realise it was all becoming a numbers game again, and the enjoyment was somewhat removed by the lack of a challenge such venues provided. Had my fishing career reached stagnation point once more?
In an attempt to re-kindle that spark of ‘fishing desire’ still burning deep in my soul I set about a mission to find out how I could re-ignite my passion. That’s the great thing about the sport of fishing, it has so many different aspects, that one will never become stagnated or restricted and the opportunities for further challenges are plenty, all that’s needed is to be ‘up’ for the challenge.
I had tried and failed in previous years to get to grips with fishing rivers. A new job based in Bath meant I would have the Bristol Avon on my doorstep. This would be the next step in my fishing life. This was quite a shock coming from the bite-a-chuck fishing I’d been used too. My first target was a barbel and I was taken under the wing of a very experienced barbel angler who invested much time and patience in me, and without him, my love for fishing rivers may never have materialised. I managed to catch my first Avon barbel, but it still felt like the river had more to give.
With the help of FishingMagic (and Steve Spiller) I started my fledgling general river fishing career. A number of blanks only resulted in more and more motivation to go fishing, all that was going through my head was how I could spend more time on the bank?
Now my motivation to fish had come full circle once more, not only was I fishing for the release and ‘nothingness’ it gives me, but I was once again happy to catch fish, any fish. As my skills and technical awareness on the river grew with mostly the help of FishingMagic I once again started to set myself small targets and aims, the main one being driven by my good friend Steve Spiller in joining him in his quest for a 2lb river roach.
As much as now I have goals and targets for my fishing, I’m keen never to lose sight of the main reason I go fishing and not to put unnecessary pressures on myself that in the end will ultimately lead to the desire to catch more or bigger fish. I would suggest that all the pictures we see in the papers or on the net can have the effect of making us feel the need to catch more or bigger fish, when sometimes taking a step back and looking at the actual reason you fish will only help to improve your enjoyment of the sport in the long run.
And here I am today, happy with the fact that I will probably never be the next John Wilson. However, deep inside I have a glowing warm feeling every time I go fishing, driven from that eternal optimism that maybe, just maybe, the next bite will be the fish of a lifetime……….
If not, oh well, it doesn’t matter, I’ll enjoy the nothingness instead.
