A few
tweaks have made the boat even more comfortable than ever before and more
organised for when a fish comes on board. It’s been brilliant spending time in
the boat through all types of weather, chilling out in my favourite place. It’s been much needed therapy getting away
from the non stop lunacy of a muddled and hectic life.
People tell us “you must be mad…” but the madness keeps me sane. Now it’s
time for a break and a rest as it really is tough, challenging fishing in every
way.
The
broads were hit with yet another tidal surge this autumn, once again salt water
travelled many miles inland killing any fish that were caught up in it. This seems to be an annual event nowadays but
every time it’s different, no one can tell which river systems will be
affected. There are still plenty of
Otters around but these don’t seem quite so bad when your miles from the sea
and a Seal pokes its head up between your floats. Thankfully there hasn’t been
a Prymnesium outbreak since the Broads Authority changed its dredging methods, one thing to be thankful for at least.
Elsewhere
in the wonderful world of Pike fishing the PAC Facebook page has been buzzing
lately, for all the wrong reasons. Facebook attracts the casual Piker far more
than any forum, this could be great for a club trying to attract new members
but unfortunately it also attracts morons, chavs and wind up merchants. At its worst it has been an embarrassment and
damaging to the club. Happily things
have improved this week with the addition of a couple of extra moderators, I
expect they’ll be busy in the future…
Elsewhere
on “The Pit” that big West Country reservoir has been providing plenty of
debate. I haven’t a clue as how it has
fished this year only that a couple of friends caught some whackers. I don’t recall hearing of a “Forty” this time
around but I may be wrong. Until one of
the main protagonists spat his dummy there had been an interesting discussion
on the merits of the latest fish finding technology. Some are questioning if what the improved
technology now shows the angler is crossing an ethical line? Others say it’s the future, get on board it’s
here to stay.
To me
the moral line must be drawn when technology is clever enough to make a poor
angler into a successful one, when the ‘skills’ we learn through experience are
replaced by a gadget. As I understand it
now, in order for the finder to show fish, the angler has to put the boat in
the right place and that’s fine with me.
I have an old echo sounder in the shed but I’ve never used it, what I
know about the places I fish I’ve learnt through trial and error. I’ve enjoyed the experience of learning through
blood, sweat and tears I wouldn’t have it any other way. Fishing where I do, I don’t need or want a
gadget that tells me if there are any Pike in my swim. I only want that mystery solved when the
float slides away, or not.
That’s
the thing with ‘specialist’ fishing; the only rules that count are the ones we
make for ourselves. Records and lists
don’t have to be aspirations; to me they are just mildly interesting. Catching
a fish is a personal thing and what it means to the captor is the only thing
that matters.
