| 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. |
The Young Ones……..There have been a number of recent articles and forum postings alluding back to early days, and how we all started fishing, prompting the memories to came flooding back. Bamboo canes, matchstick floats, horsehair line (well, perhaps not that far back!) bent pins or hooks sold loose for 1d each. And the heroic battles with three and ten spined sticklebacks, trophy fish carted off home in jam jars then displayed to admiring family and friends. But that was then, and this is now, and those halcyon days under clear blue summer skies are now no more, nor will they be, I’m afraid. Fishing was just one of the many rites of passage for young boys (and some girls). During the school holidays we would be ushered out of the house in the morning and told not to come back until tea time, not that we needed much encouragement to go off and have adventures, the only limit to where we went was how far we could get to on our bikes and still be back home at the appointed hour. As well as fishing, there would be fun to be had making camps, which would involve campfires, of course. Stout penknives would be used to hack branches off surrounding trees to act as shelter and camouflage our secret hideout, although swirling clouds of acrid smoke caused by burning the same green branches on the bonfire would somewhat give your position away to the enemy (usually the local farmer, if you were in his woods, again). Homemade bows and arrows, using the obligatory penknife to whittle down a suitable sapling into a bow and stretched taut across the end was the piece of string you always carried in your pocket, these were the weapons of choice, but failing that, a Y shaped branch would be pressed into service as a catapult. But I fear that all of that has gone now, along with scrumping apples, climbing trees, conker fights, and most recently, the flying of paper aeroplanes has been banned in schools, for fear of ‘taking someone’s eye out’ (did that really ever happen to anyone…?), all in deference to our incessant drive to protect our little darlings from the nasty world outside, and of course, in mortal terror of a compensation claim. This has, of course meant that the highly dangerous activity known as a nature ramble is completely off the curriculum. The mere thought of the dangers that mummy’s little darlings could be exposed to out in the countryside is enough to bring on an attack of the vapours. Children are no longer being taught to integrate with their surroundings, it appears that they must be insulated from them at all costs, which means that they no longer get exposed to fishing (imagine the outrage, ‘Good God, you mean there’s water involved!’) as a matter of course during their upbringing. I know that there are a number of more enlightened schools which do include courses on fishing, but they are very few and far between. Now some may lay the blame at our rampant compensation culture, which we seem to have inherited from our cousins across the pond in America, but think on. Theirs is probably the most litigious society in the world, and yet…. Every year they send their kids into the great outdoors for weeks at a time when they bundle them off to summer camp. Their huntin’ shootin’, fishin’ lobby is powerful enough in its own right, (I’m sure that the NRA, amongst others, make sure pretty sure of that) but over and above all of that, they have a separate Department of Fish and Game to look after their interests as well. And in that they have a body whose stated aim is to positively encourage young and old alike to get outside and enjoy their surroundings. On this side of the Atlantic, our own, much loved, Environment Agency is a huge, rambling Government department which covers a whole range of issues, such as Business and Industry, Science and Research, Air Quality, Land Quality, Navigation, Recycling, Waste and tacked on the end of course, is Angling, which does look a little out of place, in that company, don’t you think? Now, perhaps I am being a little na  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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