| KEVIN PERKINS | |
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. |
PREPARATION, PREPARATION… How much time do you take in preparing for a fishing session? Are you one of those who devotes more time to getting ready for a session than you do on the bank, or do you just chuck everything in the back of the car and head off? In the first instance, do you feel you will catch more fish if you are better prepared, leaving nothing to chance, with myriads of bait and rig combinations to ring the changes if required? Do you go out with a particular set-up in mind, only changing tactics if prevailing conditions dictate a different strategy, or do you wait until you arrive and then decide on the bank which line of attack to take? This is a scene familiar to the match fishing fraternity, who have to fish the water that is put in front of them, but the rest of us can factor in the possibility of a choice of different swims, sometimes even have the luxury of changing venues if the mood takes us. Although none of that helps if you spend days/weeks prebaiting a swim only to find some other bugger fishing it when you turn up! There again, you might be one of those nonchalant types who leaves his gear made up in the garage/shed, or better still, chucked in the back of the car, and arrives at the bankside to give the fish whatever he’s got, and if they don’t want it – then tough! I’ve tried both approaches over the years, and I have to say that I am firmly of the opinion that the best method is – I don’t know! I think it is one of those rites of passage that we go through as anglers. Remember when we started off as schoolboys, short trousers held up with ‘snake’ belts, and went on fishing expeditions equipped with little more than a garden cane, 10′ length of ‘Pescalon’ line (never more than 3lb BS, any higher than that in those days and you had trouble bending the line, let alone tying knots in it!). Add to that a single hook, and if you hadn’t bothered to dig up some worms, a small cup of maggots sold to you in a brown paper bag. *Please note, the following paragraph contains code only decipherable to those of over thirty-five. These essential requisites were obtained from a local tackle retailer, who obviously knew all about demographics and the laws of supply and demand. That 10′ length of line cost 6d; at a time when a whole spool full would have only set you back 4/-. Hooks were doled out at 1d each, when a pack of twenty was only 1/-, and the tiny enamelled tin cup used to measure the maggots into a brown paper bag had a capacity of about 2ozs (including sawdust) and cost 6d, a whole pint (of maggots and sawdust, or was it sawdust with some maggots in it) would have given you change from two half-crowns. Cycling to the pond with a paper bag full of maggots in your pocket was a sport in itself, of course. Thereafter, if no one trod on it, laid it on its side so the inhabitants would escape with some alacrity, or stood it on a damp patch on the bank, allowing the bottom to fall out next time it was picked up, you were doing all right. Maggot tins (none of this modern plastic rubbish) were not for young boys like us for quite some time yet. Then as you progressed, you acquired more and more ‘proper’ tackle, so much so that you took the lot with you, just to be on the safe side. This collection just grew and grew, until there was far too much to take, and it got segregated into various piles in the garage/shed. Those piles weren’t static in their composition, as each trip brought with it a degree of fine-tuning. Because you want to cover every eventuality, imperceptibly, over a period of time, the amount you drag to the bank increases again to the point where you decide there is just too much, and so you then spend an entire weekend sorting it all out, again. This has two benefits, the first being that all your gear is now neat and tidy, the second is that in going through everything you have noticed that there are one or two bits that you seem to be missing, and a two page shopping list of must-have equipment has been compiled…… Nowadays, I only take along the absolute minimum of tackle, and rarely sort anything out before I go. One thing that has now become an essential purchase before every session is new line, and the reason for this is my recently obtained rod quiver. The day before I go fishing, I look at those rods and reels all made up and neatly strapped to the sides after the last session, one glance at the line on those exposed reel spools and paranoia sets in. Will the sunlight have affected it (I know, I know, but you can’t be too careful) – did it catch on a thorn bush or bramble while I was walking back from the last session- maybe the line got a nick in it when I threw (placed it very carefully!) into the boot – has junior scraped his bike up against the exposed spools in the quiver whilst it was stood in the garage etc, etc. Of course, if I have to pop into the tackle shop before to get the now obligatory line, I will usually buy a few essentials, such as hooks, swivels, beads, bait box(es) floats, weights, rod rests, anything bright or shiny, particularly spinners and plugs, in the certain knowledge that I’ve got them at home somewhere, but you can’t be too sure, and you can never have too many, can you? |
