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The hobby of Angling is seen to be a peaceful sport of which a human being resorts to a day near the water to get away from the hellish home or the busy world in which he lives in.
Angling is defined as fishing for enjoyment, catching one fish at a time using a hook however we all know that isnt entirely correct.
For most of us who participate in the sport, at some stage in our lives whether it was when we first started or even now, would have dreamed that that definition was actually true.
Fishing for enjoyment can often be a dream for many, especially beginners and experienced anglers alike.
A days enjoyment can often turn into a day full of stress, misery and clumsiness, minus the enjoyment part.
At some stage or another we have all had a terrible days fishing, whether it was in the biting wind or the warm summer mornings when everything seemed just perfect.
Ive decided to write about some of the many bad times we experience or have experienced in the past whilst resorting to angling for a bit of peace and quiet.
My influence for doing so is because everyones perspective of fishing is exactly that of in a dictionary- peaceful and normally enjoyable.
Dont get me wrong, angling is usually those things and I love the sport myself, but sometimes a perfectly planned days enjoyment can turn into an unexpected nightmare of a session.
I have decided to have a moan about certain aspects of fishing and a talk about those times we have all had, experienced and done.
Many of us at one stage or another have often wondered to ourselves- why am I here, sitting on a bank, waiting for a fish to pick up my bait..

The Weather
Britain is known for its delightful weather, especially in the summer when we expect a bit of sunshine but instead receive torrential rain and gale force winds.
Planning for the right conditions can start a week or even a few hours before a an angling trip is due to happen.
We all love the sun and those warm dry days, but unfortunately as luck has it, we live in the most unpredictable country for weather forecasting (or so they tell us).
With the advanced meteorological equipment we have today most of us would have thought that Mr. Weatherman could have predicted whether or not a day would stay dry or whether it would rain.
So a few days before we intend to go, Mr. Weatherman tells us what a nice day its going to be. Instantly we smile and look foreword to the day even more, in fact the time in waiting is usually passed with great anticipation and a warm feeling of excitement.
The day arrives.
The alarm clock sounds and you get out of bed ready to undertake what you were told was going to be a great day out.
As you pull back the curtains most of the excitement inside is lost.
You look out to see rain falling down the window and the trees in your garden bent double by the wind.
The same is said over and over; they can never forecast the weather properly yet we still plan our days as to how they tell us the weather will be. With the grey skies and the terrible weather it is down to you to decide how much you love the sport as to whether or not to go out as planned.
Many of us would shut the curtains and go back to bed, however there are a high percentage of us that would go ahead with the trip.
Those of us who decide to go ahead with it, usually fully regret it once we are out there and fishing.
With the cold biting through, the rain making it hard to see the wind blowing your tackle to another world, one can only dream of what it would be like back in bed tucked up in the warmth and one can only ask himself- what am I doing out here?



Snags
Much of the tackle available today in shops is greatly over priced and the companies that produce the goods know full well they are screwing us over good and proper.
Even the tackle companies that produce the goods that you pay what you thought was good money for often end up broken or in pieces, but thats a different story.
Snagging is clearly the least enjoyed part of fishing that we all encounter in our life, no matter how skilled we are at the sport.
Theres nothing more annoying than going fishing and coming back with half of your tackle, or should I say your expensive, originally over-priced tackle.
There are a few different types of snagging that can occur, and Im sure you have experienced all, if not most of them.

The first snag you may encounter happens on the bank and is often the most annoying snag.
This kind of snag is the one that makes you stand out like a sore thumb and look like a complete retard to the other anglers on the lake.
You set up your gear, bait your hooks and have your eye on the targeted spot in the water.
You take a step back and slowly draw the rod over your head, you then take a little step foreword and yank the rod.
After a short time of wondering what just happened, you turn around only to find your bait or rig isnt anywhere near the water, but up the tree behind you or in the deep undergrowth around your peg. What a bummer.
You may be the most experience angler in the world but one day, if you havent already, you will catch a decent sized tree. This type of snag is often down to stupidity of not checking whats behind you or more importantly above you.
This mistake is often amusing to watching anglers but not for you as you are the one being laughed at, at the same time the one who is loosing your experienced angler image.

The second type of snag is more of an unlucky snag and this happens in the water.
After fishing for a while or even ten minutes and for some reason or another you need to reel in your line, you find that you cant as you hook has took a firm grip of something you didnt want it to.
Initially this snag may feel like you have hooked a fish, but sooner rather than later you realise its not, and most likely pretend you have hooked a biggen for as long as you can to avoid looking stupid in front of other anglers.
This snag usually ends up with loss of tackle, loss of hooks and possible loss of eyes, as the thick lead weight sometimes comes free and hurtles itself towards you quicker than you can say trout and dive for cover.
It is usually caused by a stray shopping trolley or a submerged tree under the water that we cant possibly see unless we have a toy sub with a specially fitted camera for that purpose, (but obviously we dont).

The final type of snag is the kind where a hooked fish dives for cover causing a rite mess.
This usually happens in a bed of lilies or a group of tree roots. This snag is often unavoidable and just causes havoc for the angler.
Little does the fish know that if he didnt swim for cover, it would be a lot easier for both him and the angler standing on the bank making grunting noises, as it would be less stressful for the human and the fish.
This usually concludes in you loosing the fish and catching a 4ft long Lillie stem to show off to all the people with you on the water.


The Element of surprise
The element of surprise is the most vital tactic when approaching a water full of apprehensive feeding carp.
The adrenaline and excitement an angler gets when he sees a feeding fish just cruising through the water is indescribable, yet the desire to whack the bait in and capture the fish without a problem is another story.
You start off by crouching nice and low, making as little noise as possible. You bait up quietly on your knees whilst flicking in pieces of bait gaining the fishs confidence.
Patiently you wait with the fish estimating its size and how good youll look with it in a photo. Before you know it your either up a tree or in the undergrowth commando style, with your Polaroids dropping down your face, grass tickling your ears and clothes soaked through with mud and water from where youve put your foot to far near the waters edge.
Time ticks by and sods law has it that the fish passes your bait numerous of time, teasing you by touching it with its lips but not actually taking it.
Most anglers would have done excellently to get this far, however a few of us by now would have made the mistake of tipping over out bait boxes whilst scrabbling on the deck or by casting out on top of the fish sending it miles off into the lake.
Spending time after one fish normally ends in misery with you looking like youve had a good game of commando, hardly any bait left and half of your tackle stuck in lakeside foliage!

Noisy neighbours
Most of us go fishing to get some peace and quiet away from the house, but sometimes we end up going fishing to find ourselves getting even more noise and disturbance than at home.
You are comfortably set up on your own on a sunny day down by the lakeside with all your rods out catching well when suddenly a group of teenagers, loud mouth adults or big headed chavs pull up in their vans.
Weve all had it, disturbance whilst fishing and we can always spot the potential idiots- bigheaded, talking loudly, wearing irregular clothing and carrying irregular bits of gear.
It starts off when the hammers come out to smack their bank sticks and bivvy pegs into the solid soil. Once they have completed this first mission, 6 kilos of bait gets scattered in irregular places around their swim, charming.
After the bait episode you get the shouting to friends for bits of tackle they have either left at home or lost.
The landing nets soon come out and wafting at the ducks starts in no time.
After a painful hour of settling in, it isnt long before one has hooked a beast.
They shout to their mates to come and help and as the palaver carries on for a good 5 minutes a 6oz roach is pulled out.
These are the type of people that show off to the people back home and tell stories of the monsters they caught. Soon the 6oz turns into 6lbs.
Whilst fishing, for some entertainment they play with catapults, launching bait over to each other having a nice loud laugh.
Arguing is also common amongst these anglers which is enough to drive you potty.
After about an hour of this has passed the annoying anglers move down to another peg to bug someone else leaving you with a swim full of scattered bait and one trashed peg full of rubbish!
These are the anglers that give people bad names and especially give the younger generation of new comers a stereotyped image. What you thought would be a peaceful session turns out to be a nightmare with kids throwing bait everywhere, hooking ducks and panicking when they catch small roach.

Hook Pulls
Hook pulls are frustrating. Catching a fish of a personal best size seems to only ever happen when you have a crap hook on the other end of your line.
After minutes of hard fighting you see the first sight of the fish come up to the surface. At this time you realise that this is a nice fish- often one that cant be lost to avoid potential record breaking disappointments.
Out comes the landing net and your arm stretched to the full in attempt to reach the beauty, your rod held high and your heart thumping with excitement.
You realise this is the fish youve been waiting for, this is the fish you have put the effort in to capturing. When you just think the fish is ready and close enough, you reach that extra inch with your landing net with total determination and desperation not to let it get away.
Your landing net just touches the fish and snap,- your hook, line and sinker launches into space in a massive tangle or knots and the fish just looks at you just for a second.
It realises its free and slowly swims off out into the water as you lunge everything youve got to stop it from leaving. You fail to reach it with your landing net and sigh loudly with disappointment.
How can you entice a fish, get it to pick up your bait in that large water, come all the way in and just have it escape at the last possible second right in front of your eyes?
Hook pulls are annoying and you never know when they will happen, but sure thing when one does happen, its the fish you most want to land.

Expensive bait
Bait. Second most important ingredient needed to make fishing work, and dont the bait companies know it.
The price of bait these days often seem higher than tackle needed to present the bait, and at the end of the day all we do with it is throw it in the water never to see it again.
Buying bait is an expensive trick, its like buying petrol for your car, you cant do without it so you have no choice but to buy it. As we are all aware it is possible to buy and use budget baits such as supermarket foods and natural creatures which is good but still fairly expensive for a session of fishing.
With permits, licenses, tickets, tackle and clothing, bait is one of those things that seems to be most wasteful. You go into a tackle shop and for a days session you probably spend a good £10 on a selection of baits, the baits you think will work their magic.
When your at the waters edge, you just throw in money for ducks and the odd fish to munch on and rarely get anything out of it.
Capturing a fish makes the cost of bait seem all worth while but when you fail to catch, or fail to catch the fish of your desire, spending that extra 10 quid on bait was purely and simply a big waste of money.

Blanking
None of us have never blanked. We all blank, possibly more times than we do catch fish. Blanking is the thing that makes going fishing seem like a waste of time and money.
No matter how hard we try sometimes, and no matter how much knowledge we have, we can never force a fish to take our bait. Cold winter nights, and long summer days can always end in a blank and frequently do.
The definition of angling, catching one fish at a time again, isnt always correct. One can go fishing and catch no fish at one time thus making this definition incorrect.
Only when it is time to pack up and go home after catching nothing, do you think to yourself, why have I sat on my arse for 7 hours to catch nothing but a cold and a depressed state of mind.

Poles
Poles, what are poles? Poles are long pieces of carbon, basically extra long sticks. For those that have used a pole or continue to do so, you will know what I mean when I say the word crunch.
Poles admittedly are good for precision but apart from that dont do you any favours, especially when carp fishing. Poles snap easier than matches, and poles turn from a state of normal to right-off in less than a second if you step back on one
. You are out fishing with a pole. The wind picks up and the pole practically drags you from left to right as you attempt to keep hold of it.
You have to keep it in your hands for as long as you must until you get a take, which gives you tremendous back ache if you sit slightly incorrectly. You ship in your pole from a fighting perch of 3oz and the 15m pole makes it feel more like 13lb.
15 Minutes later when 13m of the pole are finally behind you, you have to be ready to dismantle the pole to land it and if your not careful you find you have scraped half an inch of carbon off one of the joins on the concrete behind you!
If the fish is over a pound or so you could be there forever shipping in and out until you have tired it, but usually by then you are the tired one and not the fish. Poles, apart from being extremely pointless and long, cost the earth. For the price of a good pole you could have purchased 10 excellent rods, a cheap car, 20 flying lessons or a holiday in the sun.
With the price of the pole you have to pay for elastics which usually end up by snapping as you snag a floating leaf in the water. You have to clean each section after use and you have to buy more top kits if you fancy a change in elastic.
Poles are useless for fish over about 10lb and just stress the average angler out. Fishing is changing too much too fast without the aid of poles taking over the show on commercial waters. If you cant cast, fancy a better chance of an electric shock from an overhead power cable, want to catch some minnows and fancy wasting £3000, then a pole would be perfect for you!

Fishing isnt all as relaxing and easy as it seems. Every time we go we get ripped off on bait and tackle prices, we loose tackle at the blink of an eye, we end up sharing waters with useless loud mouths and we find ourselves fishing in the worst weather conditions known to man in order to catch a fish and let it go again.
We can easily spend in excess of £1000s per annum all down to the love of the sport. Sometimes its worth asking ourselves, why do we do it? For as long as I live I will continue to enjoy angling as much as you, but the view on fishing isnt all as easy and relaxing as it seems.
Often its more stressful than being in the working world as things dont go your way, but I guess this is all part of being a fisherman and having a passion for angling!

A so called Passion for Angling will return, with more issues to moan about and discuss. Meanwhile, enjoy fishing and keep those lines tight ;-)

Steven Morby


To Be Continued

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