Wintle’s World – Fishing: Give and Take

Fishing: Give and Take

Plenty are only too willing to take. Conversely, there are, it seems, a minority of incredibly hard-working individuals who sacrifice a lot of time and effort, money too, to make angling a success. This effort takes many forms, from fishery management and bailiffing, to writing articles, coaching, float making, and in the modern idiom, contributing positively to angling forums. That effort can account for hours every day to a short period weekly or monthly, yet collectively it keeps angling on the rails.

Let me give you some examples: for many years I served on the committee of a small angling club, what I did is not the issue but rather what happened at one of the committee meetings sums up the situation beautifully. The match secretary, as hard working a man as most, but unwilling to put himself out too much, complained long and hard that someone needed to trim back the branches on various pegs on our club lake and effect some repairs on a couple of platforms. It was clear that the expectation was that someone else should do this work even though his job easily allowed two or three afternoons free a week which he spent fishing at the lake. Later the same evening, the club secretary told us that we had a vacancy on the committee and asked for suitable nominations. I suggested that I had in mind the perfect candidate. The room fell hushed. That person was someone who would no doubt be able to complete the odd jobs that always needed doing. I then suggested that if jobs needed doing that the person recognising the fact was often best placed to make the contribution.

Another time I was involved in a match group. This successful team had a useful blend of youth and experience with anglers’ ages ranging from 18 to 35 (I was a lot younger then). The team captain, a youthful 22, approached a representative of a major manufacturer at one of the forerunners of the Go Fishing show held at Sandown Park. The man we spoke to wanted to know what we were offering whereas our team captain wanted to know what we’d get. It was an interesting experience for those of us present. At the subsequent team meeting, myself and the other oldest member of the team spent a couple of hours explaining to our team captain that it didn’t matter what we’d get. That was incidental because if we gave as much as we could then in time we would reap the rewards. Sadly, he could not see it that way and he chased the dollar which ultimately led to the collapse of the team.

Another example is that I like making floats. Some of them are very good, some merely useable. Sometimes I make plenty, other times I haven’t got the time or inclination, and just once in a while I strive to make a perfect float just for the sheer hell of it. Occasionally, I make a batch of floats from which I’ll keep a couple then give the rest away. But, and it’s a big but, I never sell my floats, unless you want to pay the £ 30 that I charge per float. That £ 30 represents the expertise and time that goes into them but keeps those that want me doing their hard work for them when they have as much time as I do to make floats. So if you receive my floats it’s because I want you to have and use them, not because you asked. Much the same goes for tying hooks to nylon; I do my own because I can, and I know it’s worth the effort but I wouldn’t tie them for anyone else because anyone can do and again has just as much time as I do.

This time factor is interesting. Anyone who spends some of their free time watching TV or surfing the Web has easily enough time to make floats, tie hooks, write articles (even books). Two hours a day, which is far less than most spend watch TV etc, equates to close on two full days a week yet is far more creative than watching a goggle box. Getting involved with running an angling club is much more time consuming as is coaching which requires qualifications nowadays but both are tremendously rewarding in the long term.

Where is this rant leading? This site has a fantastic pool of talented and experienced anglers, most of whom are capable of stringing a decent article together and adding a few pics. Let’s treat the new editor, whoever he (or she) may be, to a wealth of new material that’ll get FM buzzing again, get the forums livened up, and the hits soaring.

There is superb advice from Mark Williams on the site about constructing an article, and when it comes down to it all you are doing is telling a story. Grab their attention, tell the story then round it off. It doesn’t take a week to write an article. Those forum sloggers could potentially contribute the most to this site. Instead of racking up yet another thousand forum hits how about a thousand words on the angling subject of your choice. This article is being written to a short time limit of an hour so it’s not a long job but more a matter of focus and determination.

So the choice is yours; do you want to be a giver or taker? I know what I want to do, and I know that what I’ve given to this site the last six years has been rewarded many times over with a great deal of personal satisfaction.