If you were to ask me what it is that I truly love about fishing, what defines me as an angler, and what is the central thing about it that keeps me coming back for more, then I’d be at a loss. Where would I start? How can it be explained? Can such a question about such wide ranging and all consuming passion be reduced to a neat equation and packed into a nutshell seemingly too small to contain it?
You’d have the same problem too, no doubt.
Though there are broad distinctions between the three main disciplines of
fishing - specimen, match and pleasure - the first two are proper callings,
even professions, for those who excel and have the drive and ambition, not to
mention the spare cash required, to rise to the top, but the third, and by far
the largest discipline of all, seems hardly a discipline, at all.
Hmm. Well I’ll put myself firmly in the
third ‘discipline’ for a start. I do fish primarily for big fish, but not the
biggest of all, so I’m something of a specimen hunter but not a truly dedicated
one. I do like to catch a lot of fish and refine my techniques in order that my
catches are increased in frequency, so there’s something of the match angler in
me too, but not so that I’d ever frame in a contest, except by sheer luck of
the draw.
Now, there’s something less than pleasing
about the term ‘pleasure angler’, isn’t there? It’s almost derogatory,
suggesting as it does, an angler who is less than serious about it. A dabbler,
a tyro, a tinkler or a trifler, and worse, a ne’er do well. Well, they’re not
me! As a suit of clothes to stand up in, not one of them fits, and so I can’t
wear possibly wear them.
No, I’m serious about what I do. Too
serious by half at times, staying up half the night thinking about rigs and
hooks and lines and things, and then going out to the bank at odd hours to try
my ideas out against the great fish that I dream of catching by them, during
the other half of the night, whilst fast asleep.
However, I do derive a great deal of
pleasure from it. I love the
challenge of trying my damndest to improve and refine my approach, my techniques,
and my tackle, so that the pleasure of it is increased by my improved catches. So,
my enjoyment of angling is in the serious, but pleasurable business, of doing
it at the best of my ability.
Just recently I caught my first ever
canal carp. And what a fish it was! Tremendously powerful and amazingly agile,
it had me in knots before I finally banked it. It wasn’t a big carp by any
standard, but that feral fish goes down in my memory as one the three best
captures I have ever made in a lifetime’s fishing.
It required a lot of planning, a great deal of hard work, many sessions of very exciting fishing to eventually find, and all the hard-earned skills gained from a career’s experience after it was hooked, to land. It was one of life’s defining moments for the committed and determined, but elated and extraordinarily happy angler that I was that night. Yes, that’s it! I’m a ‘serious pleasure angler,’ one who gains enjoyment from his earnestness.
There, I’m happy with that. It’s all neatly
packed in that nutshell, and describes me very well. And, I’d guess it
describes the majority of us, if not all, including the professionals and the
specialists, because ultimately, all of us derive our pleasure from our
seriousness, and our best catches, from both.
Tight lines!
Jeff Hatt
Jeff Hatt
If you wish to contact me directly, then be my guest
