The best highs in angling...

[Aknib]

What is your ultimate high in angling?

A warm, early Summer morning with fizzing beneath your float shortly before it slides away to signal the beginning of an ongoing battle with a feisty Tench?

Dusk on a Winter stream and a knock on the quivertip before the pull around and engaging with a crafty lump of a Chub?

The 'bob' of a Pike float as one picks up your bait and your pulse goes into overdrive whilst timing the strike?

More straight forward for me and quite inwardly insulting in a humble kind of way....

The cradling of a Summer Barbel in the current, pointed upstream until you feel the tail begin to wag before that ultimate flick of the tail sends water slapping across your face in a defiant, f..k you i'm having the last laugh manner.

At that moment I know all is well and there's little to beat it for me.

What's your ultimate angling 'high'?

 

[Alan Whitty]

Catching/fooling a crafty specimen of any species that has been sticking its fins up at me in clear water, over the years it has happened many times, with many changes tactically, the pleasure of seeing a fish engulf your bait when it appeared to totally ignore it previously is a true adrenalin rush, for me anyway...

 

[Keith M]

Mine is sitting by my favourite Barbel stream on a warm summers evening after catching a couple of decent sized Barbel, when I can just lay my rod down; pour myself a drink and just sit there soaking in the atmosphere and the wildlife both in and out of the water around me, before continuing my fishing knowing that there’s a very good chance of catching more that evening.


A close second is almost the same, but on a secluded estate lake catching some nice Tench on a warm summers evening.

Keith

 

[Philip]

Difficult one. Its hard to beat that moment while sight fishing when you actually watch a fish that been circling your bait for ages finally opens its mouth to gulp it down.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I can think of many but I used to thoroughly enjoy that last hour on the carp lake before bringing the rods in for the night and brewing a pot of tea before getting my head down for a few hours sleep to be ready for dawn the next day.

 

[nottskev]

I was about to sketch a few scenarios that would answer the question, but I'll say striking at a bite and feeling a fish on. Thankfully that kick stays the same whether the circumstances are idyllic or banal.

 

[The Sogster]

When I was a younger man I would have said "owt as long as it's not raining".

But as I approach my dotage, I think it's always the unexpected that delights and keeps my interest.
The unexpected huge gudgeon or dace for example, rare/ unusual wildlife sightings or fish behaviour.

Even weather phenomenon, as long as it's not raining.

 

[peterjg]

My favourite is fishing a nice spot on the Kennet, laying-on watching the float, a piece of peacock quill laying flat on the surface, shaking a bit and then gliding under!

 

[S-Kippy]

Turning up at my club lake pre dawn and finding that I’ve beaten the Godalming silverbacks to my favourite swim.

Not happened yet

I also used to get terribly excited by the bobbin lifting steadily on one of my Zander rods

 

[steve2]

Was.
Watching the mist over a lake lifting as another day dawns.
When all the plans come together and it is a red letter day.

Now it is a bit like Mortimer and Whitehouse, just getting friends of over 50 years together on the bank and talking over old times. We are now all well into our 70's so there may not be many of those days left. So catching fish is now second place.

 

[Steve Arnold]

After restraining my impatience to leave a bait in one spot of the river long enough for a fish to find it......then that little tug on the rod tip......was it drifting weed?.....another firmer tug......is it roach or bream?......but the tension is building!

Then it goes quiet for a few minutes......should I change the bait.......no, something has found my bait......

Heart on hold....stomach tightens....hand hovers near my rod.....

Then it all happens in an instant, the rod tip shoots around to follow the fish that has hooked itself......is it a barbel? The run does not stop against my tight drag......realization......it is a carp.....still running downstream......how BIG !!!!

I live for these moments on the river Lot, when the hook sets in something fast and unstoppable I get that rare (for a 71 year old) burst of adrenaline. No sense of pain, pure focus on the massive living creature I have tricked onto my hook.....excitement! I know this stretch of river has 70 pounders, I have hooked and lost them. But even a "mere" 20 pound river carp will test me to my limit if I am to bring it to the net!

That carp gave me an epic weir pool fight, strong current, boulders, sunken trees - this old fish knew its territory well!

 

[Ray Roberts]

For me it’s catching a target species or a bag of them. You set out your stall to catch something and achieve your objective. That’s not to say bonus fish are unwelcome but the buzz is better if it’s what you are targeting. It can even be a couple of species at the same time as there are some that go together, crucian carp and tench for example.

 

[no-one in particular]

I am not a fly angler as such but on the occasions I go after chub on the fly in the summer and you can see a few and cast a fly and you see one turn and take it followed by that solid resistance takes some beating for me. But not far behind is watching a float sail away, you know it is good fish and then to feel that solid lump as you strike is a nice high; I don't mind what it is' even a nice bream will do. Catching lots of fish with one or two like that makes for a "high" day. Of course, mood, weather, a rare bird or two or a nice butterfly even can all enhance a day, when you get the lot together which is not often, well; that is why I go.

 

[john step]

That nano second on contact and the rod comes alive and you feel the fish whether its a roach on waggler gear or a pike run or a carp pull round on a feeder. All the same. Its just the time of year and conditions that dictate my choice of style.

 

[John Aston]

You are right- it is that wriggling thump which meets your strike which is the ultimate hit, the reason why I fish . As salmon anglers put it 'the tug is the drug'.

Contexts help - an upland trout stream on what Thomas Hardy called 'a thyme scented, bird hatching morning in May ' is my idea of heaven. But so is an early summer lake with swallows scrolling the surface and a telltale line of bubbles near your float - or a still , cold ,late winter day when the river looks like grey/green mercury and is promising a big chub or perch .

 

[Pete Shears]

As per John Step and not blanking.

 

[S-Kippy]

I’ve had a serious think about this and I’d have to say that for me nothing will ever compare to sea trout fishing at night. The excitement and anticipation of arriving at the river, the tension of waiting for the light to go and that first cast into the dark……and hopefully at some point that savage yank as a sea trout hits the fly and the electric buzz of the line as a maniac thrashes the water to foam and charges up and downstream faster than you can reel. Terrifying and yet fantastic.

 

[mikench]

My first grayling and it was only a tiddler but it was a grayling.

 

[markcw]

Fishing 9" deep on a 12" pole rig and managing to get it out to 16 metres you either the mudline or gap in the rushes without tangling it .

 

[no-one in particular]

Grayling certainly give a high, I remember one occasion my dad got us a weekend on the Hamp Avon, staying in a hotel in Fordingbridge, I was about 12 years old, never fished the Avon and never stayed in a hotel; my excitement levels were very high.
We blanked the first day but my dad's friend said he would get me up early and we would have a little session on the free stretch in the park opposite. So there I was at about 6pm float fishing maggot on a little quill float between some weeds in perfectly clear water and perfect weather. I must have had a bout 20 grayling. Dad missed it having spent the night before getting pissed in the bar and never had a fish the whole weekend, served him right but he never stopped moaning about it for the rest of his life. My high was his low but that was often the case!