Since the closed season on stillwaters was abolished I’ve been able to more easily wriggle out of gardening and decorating, which was always reserved for that time when we couldn’t wet a line. 
Unfortunately, what has reared its head in its place is the ‘Work Party’, the inevitable chores that fishing clubs always find sometime in the old closed season. So instead of raking the dead leaves and weed out of the flower beds, and mowing the lawn at home, we rake the dead leaves and weed out of outlet streams, and cut the grass round lakes and streams. Abolishing the closed season has bred more work parties than ever. Or at least it seems that way.
What is peculiar though, is that we don’t seem to mind too much. The aches and pains we always suffer from when gardening don’t happen to anywhere near the same degree when on a fishing work party. The compulsory brew every 20 minutes when in the garden can stretch to one every hour or so when working around water.
Fair enough, the aches and pains soon rear their ugly heads when we get home, just in case someone is waiting with a shedful of gardening tools, or a ladder and brush. And of course it is only right that we should moan and groan to Olympic standards, after all, we’ve just done several hours hard graft that we didn’t really want to do. The fact that the work party may earn us some extra fishing with the club, and that it brings a gang of old mates together to chat about the one that got away, and those that didn’t, is nothing to do with it.
We do it because we are conscientious and hard-working, and want to do our best for our fishing club.
‘Er indoors will never understand how much we are willing to sacrifice for a good cause.
