The Alternative Angler – Is it just me…..?

Never mind smelling the flowers, don’t forget to take time out to see the satirical side of fishing life and grab a laugh along the way as well. So here’s a regular column from Kevin Perkins to remind us that life is for laughing at, or taking the p*** out of, whenever we can.

Is it just me…..?

I started out well in the early years, learning by mistakes, adapting to different methods, and then reached that plateau where you feel comfortable in what you are doing, without ever being over-confident. Then, for various reasons, my regular outings dwindled, and weeks without fishing turned to months, even years. Now I find I am able to get back in the saddle on a more regular basis, I confess that I feel apprehensive about doing so.

Let me say at the outset that this apprehension does not manifest itself in all the angling disciplines. My preferred sport is spinning, and apart from the myriad new types and colours of lures available today, the actual mechanics and tackle involved have changed very little over the years; indeed I have no doubt that the twenty-year old Mepps and Toby’s I have left in my tackle boxes (pretty amazing when some of them only last fifteen minutes in my hands, usually with the most expensive finding the worst snags the quickest!) will, and do, still catch fish and that I am confident in using them. Sling it out, reel it in, and when you can’t you’ve caught a fish – basic, simple stuff.

And speaking of fly-fishing, here is another branch of the sport that I dip in and out of. A few years ago, I (mistakenly, I now realise) sold all my trout gear, in the firm belief that I wouldn’t ever be going again. Rods I had hand built on Sportex blanks, fly reels loaded with Cortland 444 lines, boxes and boxes of flies, folding landing net, trout bag, drogue, bass bag, the whole works, makes me wince just typing it out now, but it seemed right at the time.

Anyway, I’m planning to go off a-trouting again, all new gear bought, and much the same as spinning, although the variety of flies has grown a pace in the intervening years, the basics have stayed roughly the same, and I will be able to go off and perform at my local day ticket water without heaping shame upon myself. Apart from my casting, that is. As long as the trout stay within around twenty yards of the bank, I will nail them.

I did once spend a day up on the dam wall at Church Hill Farm, and with the wind blowing gently from behind me I had the full thirty-yard WF7S line out almost every cast. Felt really pleased with my performance that day, flogged the water into foam, and just caught the one fish, but I had the dam to myself all day and from what I could see no one else was casting anywhere like as far as me.

I strolled back to the office in the gathering gloom to record my solitary catch, and the nice man with the scales said he had watched me long casting lures all day, but wondered why I hadn’t come down to the shallow end and did a bit of nymphing with the others to make up my limit, like everybody else had, as those fish were all being caught well within my casting range, some only five yards from the bank!

Another favourite of mine is pike fishing, and here again, for the past thirty years, 3lb rod, fair size reel and a mackerel tail will just about see you all right almost everywhere you go. There are a few more ‘trendy’ deadbaits available these days, but tactics-wise, a rudimentary knowledge of float legering, sink and draw, maybe a little bit of wobbling, will suffice for the most part, and could even see you catching a fish or two into the bargain. So, having seen that the pursuit of predatory fish hasn’t moved on in leaps and bounds, it is when you turn to other coarse fish that the world seems to have gone mad.

Carp anglers are a branch of the sport all to themselves, and I won’t knock people for choosing that particular discipline. Endless galleries of pot bellied, glistening wet, bulging eyed, open mouthed creatures don’t do lot for me, and the fish that the anglers are cradling in those pictures aren’t always that attractive either! I accept that the development of rigs and baits has reached the point where it is close to being a science. My only thought is that the goldfish in my pond have been eating the same food for the past twenty years, they never seem to need different flavours, shapes or presentation, if it’s there, they eat it, must be a fish in captivity thing……..

Barbel anglers are off on another branch, almost running in parallel with the carp boys, but demanding that there can be no duplication in tackle or baits, for fear of being accused of copying. Then we have the carp sub-group of commercial fishermen, who have developed a whole new genre of gear for their particular pursuit, with method and bagging waggler now to the fore. Those few souls who still roam the deserted river banks and who are not in search of either barbel or carp (what are they doing there then?) will be carrying different gear again to either float fish or leger. Perhaps they also frequent the stillwaters and require some long-range waggler equipment, perhaps something to leger for bream or tench.

The reason for all these musings? I was daft enough to walk into a tackle shop and ask about buying a 13′ rod I could use for general float fishing and at a push, lob out the odd link leger or small bomb. Ha,ha,ha! Apparently I am deluded into thinking such a thing exists, as the list of models of rods for all the diverse different purposes I had in mind became a sermon. The assistant’s face registered mild amusement fading to disdain when I mentioned I used to do all the above with my old Hardy Matchmaker, why, I even used it to fish canals, the towpaths of which you are apparently not allowed to tread without being in possession of at least sixteen metres of carbon pole these days.

So according to the tackle shop assistant, If only I could refine my choice down to:

A)Species of fish I am targeting
B)Stillwater or river
C)Type of float fishing – Exact model/shotting capacity must be stated
D)Length of rod (do I need dolly extensions – do I?)
E)Long or short range
F)Strength of line I am using

I should be able to narrow my requirements down to three or four rods. When I mention I already have a pair of Avon/Quiver rods, which do most things quite nicely, and I really just want something similar, but a bit longer, the assistant’s eyes start to glaze over.

Has float fishing got so specialised over the past few years and do we really need so many variations of the same theme, or have I missed something completely, and once more ‘Is it just me…..?’