Don't drink and fish!

[Kappa]

Reading this months Advanced Carp Fishing one article talks about everyone on the lake having a social one night and most having very sore heads the next day.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love a pint, but not when fishing. I don't see the point in putting yourself and the fish at risk by getting plastered when fishing.

 

My local club lake (home to almost everything that is wrong with fishing) will have been chock full of drunk carpers this weekend. I spoke to one guy last year who had taken 48 cans of strongbow for a weekend! Another one I can never understand what he's saying as I've not yet met him when he's not slurring!

 

So what do you think? Do you like a drink whilst fishing? Am I just a prude?

 

Rich

[Steve Walker]

I'd make a distinction between taking a break for lunch and having a pint or a couple of glasses of wine, or having a nip from a hip flask on a cold winter's day, and sitting in a bivvy getting plastered.

 

Main restriction for me is actually the need to drive home.

[Guest tigger]

I don't drink booze any time let alone when fishing I hate the stuff. Even if I liked a bevvy then I would restrain myself from it when fishing. I don't think booze should be consumed when on the bank.

 

 

What's up with tea, coffee, etc, much more refreshing than fire water!

Edited April 13, 2009 by tigger

[Dick Dastardly]

I totally agree with you Richard.Ive seen some sad old sights on the bank caused by too many tins of Fosters etc!

[j_s]

Always driving when I go fishing but even if I have popped down on the Basingstoke Canal for a quick dabble I never take booze, I just don't see the point, I'm there to take in the sights and get a fish, plus taking more crap with me when I want to take as little kit as possible just seems a silly.

[Neil G]

Don't usually bother myself but having one cold lager whilst sea fishing on a hot day can be really nice.

 

Seems to go hand in hand with builder/pub types/carpers and overnight sessions and local scallies down the river...you certainly know they've been there from all the litter

[Elton]

I've overdone it with drink in the past, including when bivvied up. Not something I'm proud of, or would recommend to anyone.

 

The sensible advice is to not have any alcohol whatsoever, but then that probably applies to all walks of life. In reality, some mates I know will have a couple of cans after their evening meal and I see nothing wrong with that.

 

I haven't touched alcohol for about six months now and am looking forward to the extra opportunities it's going to bring to my carp fishing this year. Instead of sitting there, necking a few cans, I want to be scouring the water for fish movement and tell-tale signs. Okay, that's not just an alcohol thing, but beer would have been one of the reasons I'd often tuck up for an early night before!

[Anderoo]

I sometimes take a bottle of wine with me on a long session. There isn't much that can beat relaxing with a decent meal and glass of red wine as the sun starts to dip with the birds in full evening chorus after a good day's tench fishing But if I was fishing somewhere with an alcohol ban I wouldn't miss it. I don't go fishing to drink like I suspect a lot of (dare I say henpecked!) blokes do!

[BoldBear]

Being an ex Navy man I have been known for liking the odd drink now and then but I certainly never drink when I'm fishing except for the very very occasional can.

In my view drinking alcohol should normally be kept away from a fishery; especially excessive drinking of alcohol; either you want to drink or you want to fish and 'nether the twain shall meet'

In the past we have thrown people out of our club for drinking excessively down our lake. besides falling in and possibly drowning; what good are they doing the poor old fish if they cant even control themselves properly.

Im not talking about the occasional tipple from a hip flask on a cold winters day but any more is just irresponsible in my book.

 

I remember when Carp fishing at Darenth in Kent a few years ago a lot of the Carp anglers would go down the pub and get drunk and stagger back to their swims to sleep it off in their bivvies; one night when one of them had gone off to sleep someone swapped the middle sections of his rods over so that the line ran from one rod to the other as a joke so that when he had a run he wouldn't know what was happening. (not exactly thinking about the poor old carp though was it!)

Edited April 15, 2009 by BoldBear

[bromley]

Booze and fishing don’t mix. You are a risk to yourself and a danger to fish welfare as how can the correct playing and unhooking of a fish be compatible with being half bevvied?

 

I love a beer as much as the next bloke and as I’m luck enough to be able to travel b y train to my club lakes I look forward to pint or two at the end of the day in the local boozer knowing I’ve not got the hassle of driving home, but drinking at the waterside? No