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Is fishing, just about catching fish?


Guest big tinca

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Guest trent.barbeler

Tinc,

 

I first started specimen hunting properly at the young age of fifteen. I feel that it is fair to say that during those years up until now I have become somewhat obsessive in my attitude towards catching the specimen sizes of all the species I have fished for over the years. Every single angling quest I have ever embarked upon has taken the form of a military excercise. It still does.

 

Tackle and techniques balanced perfectly, endless hours spent watching fish movements which sometimes involved driving over a hundred miles midweek in a single trip just to watch fish. Hundreds of pounds of bait made and used in a single season, the list is frankly, endless.

 

In truth, my ultimate driving force is my desire to catch the biggest fish possible of my chosen species. Mostly, these fish are totally unknown to me because I dont fish any "hot" venues prefering to fish waters where the species they contain are hardly fished for. Interestingly, these types of hardly fished waters have produced some stunning fish far bigger than those caught in the more fashionable waters within the general locality.

 

"Seek and ye shall find" has always been my motto.

 

Now a days, I only fish for barbel and only on the River Trent. Still, my attitude towards big fish and military type planning remains. Not everyones cup of tea I admit but I enjoy every second of it all.

 

Fortunately, specimen angling involves a certain amount of waiting and during those periods of inactivity I look and listen.

 

I take as much pleasure from wild plants growing in the meadows along the river as I do from watching a barn owl quartering the fields at dusk or in the emerging dawn. Badgers scurrying home along thick hedges, foxes shouting to each other in January with tawny owls screeching out their ghostly calls throughout the night.

 

These are just a few of the wonders from our natural world that we can all enjoy.

 

I suppose that I am fortunate in the fact that whilst I go to great lengths to catch my fish, I always marvel at the wonderful bounty that mother nature gives us all entirely free of charge.

 

And that, is what my fishing is all about.

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Guest Grubby_Fisherman

If fishing was only about catching fish, well I would having given up long ago. When carp fishing on a hard water, if you didn't enjoy the fact of just being there, well it would do yer brain in.

I think it was Isaac Walton or some other old geezer that said for every minute spent relaxing fishing, your life span would be increased by that amount accordingly. God, I'm gonna live to a ripe old age.

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Guest hoppy
Originally posted by big tinca:

Hi everyone,

Is fishing just about catching fish?

What do you think?

 

For me, fishing is being there with nature, in a peacefull relaxed atmosphere, listening to the rustling of the trees, hearing the movement of water and the songs of the birds as they flutter about the bushes...Bliss...

I think thats why I miss half of my bites, my mind is elsewhere with the natural world.

I,d be no good as a matchman.

Cheers..hoppy smile.gif

 

 

 

------------------

been there done that

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Guest fisherman

For the years that I have been fishing I can honestly say now that to catch a fish is a bonus. Why not just look around the river bank at the wild life and enjoy.

Same as you Hoppy, I would never make a match fisherman, hate to think of the number of bites I have missed looking elsewhere at the wrong moment, but who cares. biggrin.gifbiggrin.gif

Dave

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Guest Graham E

Sometimes I need to catch a fish, a big fish. I want to tell it that I outsmarted it when it thought it safe.

After that I can recover and just enjoy the river and the fauna and hope that my children can enjoy the same comradeship and perversly, solitude and peace that the hobby of fishing has given me through lifes tests.

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Guest bart4real

Fishing is what you want it to be and these days there are too many people dictating to others about what fishing is. If you are happy to sit it out and catch a few big fish or even one specimen then that is down to the individual. Likewise if you enjoy catching a big weight of smaller fish then that too is a matter of choice. What I object to is the hypocracy and patronising attitudes of certain specimen anglers who dictate ethics and methods as though their capture of a specimen fish was based upon expertise and ability. If the truth be known, that fish could have been caught by anyone, but as the fishing rights are limited to a select few, then the opportunity never arose. Basically, if a fish is caught by an angler who is a member of a syndicate on a water which restricts fishing to a small percentage of anglers, then unless it was available for every angler to fish for it, then it should not count as a record. It is bad enough that this situation arises but to have the cheek to pose in a magazine or newspaper with that fish, just demonstrates the hypocracy of the captor. It would be interesting to hear what justification there is for limiting the fishing rights to select few. I accept that bad sportsmanship is prevalent in every sport, but for some reason, angling has more than its fair share.

 

Originally posted by big tinca:

Hi everyone,

 

When i go fishing to whatever venue i go to relax and hopefully catch some fish too!

 

But you see some people who pump in the bait just to catch fish.

 

Is fishing just about catching fish?

 

What do you think?

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Guest Simon Newbould

Bart,

 

Regardless of where a fish is caught from - if it is the biggest of that species yet caught on rod and line in this country then it is a record......

 

Let's face it mate - if you or I really wanted to fish the places that hold fish of this quality we could!!!

 

These guy's don't just turn up and fish for a couple of hours, catch a couple of record sized fish and go home you know.... they are truly dedicated (obsessive even) I very much doubt that the likes of you or I would catch anywhere near as well as these guy's if we were fishing their waters......

 

I see no hypocrisy at all - you wanna fish for 'em? make the same sacrifices as these guy's and you can.....

 

Simon

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Guest Graham E

I agree with you in general Simon....but isn't it wonderful when Joe Bloggs pops down to his local river, puts some maggots on the hook, dangles it and catches a record.

Is't that one aspect that makes fishing great?

It could be you.........

 

[This message has been edited by Graham E (edited 12 June 2001).]

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Guest Elton
Originally posted by Graham E:

It could be you.........

 

 

Whether it's a record, specimen or p.b., it's the comment above that often makes angling so full of anticipation. smile.gif

 

Elton

 

 

 

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Anglers' Net

Keeping It Virtual...

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