FULHAM’S injured midfielder Jimmy Bullard has confessed: "The way I’m going I’ll soon be better at fishing than I am at football!"
The cheeky chappy has become addicted to fishing since his injury and is now so good that he is winning fishing matches.
He tells FourFourTwo magazine: "I started fishing matches when I was about 12. Club matches are like a totally difference sport. The fishing I started doing, down by the river is quite relaxing; it takes your mind off the footy.
"I’ve dedicated myself to fishing a lot more since the injury. I only really do one sport at a time – I love my golf too, but the sticks are locked away now. I get so focused, it’s like an addiction.
"Being injured, it helps me out in my head too, as I’m still gearing up for something at the weekends, and I like the winning."
The secret of his success, says Jimmy, is a new bait called PVA – a little bag of pellets which disintegrates when you put it in water. The first match I tried it, there were 75 anglers and I won. I couldn’t believe it.
"The prizes are worth having as well – the two I won were £800 each. Maybe a few people get the hump, this footballer coming along and taking the money, but sod ’em. I’m there to win.
"All the fish go back in the lake afterwards. I never eat them – I love them I caress them back in. My missu goes bonkers sometimes when I come back stinking of fish. And she gets the hump when I wake her up half six in the morning, rattling about, then bring my maggots in and the car’s all muddy but she’s alright really."
Bullard admitted he ‘made a bit of a prat’ of himself after falling in the water a few times and dropping his phone in the lake, during one match. "It stayed there for the full five hours because I just carried on fishing, then I scooped it out with the landing net and it still worked. Good phone, that one."
During his injury Bullard has enjoyed his finest catch at Riverside Way, Uxbridge, last month when he landed a river barbel (8lbs 10) seen in the photo.
FourFourTwo Magazine is on sale today (wednesday)
