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Angling Quotations


Guest Chris Plumb

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Guest poledark

Dick did an enormous amount of observing and was well aware of the 20minute rule, but I cant remember the quote.

Nevermind, seeing the H T Sheringham quote again was good, thanks Chris

 

 

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poledark ANMC

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Guest Fatboy

I don't know who, but I like:

 

'I went into the hazel wood

Because a fire was in my head.

I cut and peeled a hazel wand

And hooked a berry on a thread

 

And when white moths were on the wing

And moth-like stars came fluttering out

I threw the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout'.

 

...I wish!

 

I also like this bit from Longfellow's introduction to 'Hiawatha'

 

'... And the pleasant water-courses,

You could trace them through the valley,

By the rushing in the Spring time,

By the alders in the Summer,

By the white fog in the Autumn,

By the black line in the Winter....'

 

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ANMC Member

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Guest poledark

Kieth, you were right. The twenty minutes referred to most other fish's and wildlife, "if you can wait twenty minutes then you have one more minute of patience than the animals" Particularly valuable if badger watching or waiting for a carp to return and have a second look at your bait.

Chris Yates was also aware of this 20minute rule. although as we all know some 20mins are longer than others!

 

 

 

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poledark ANMC

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Guest Chris Plumb

As we're building up a nice little anthology here I thought I'd cut and paste the bit from the ESP thread that inspried me to start the thread - so that all the quotes are in one place...

 

Arthur Ransome from Rod and Line (1929).

 

"The benign moment is difficult to define or explain, though every fisher-man knows it. It is like one of those sudden silences in a general conversation when, in England, we say 'An angel passes' and in Russia, in the old days, they used to say, 'A policeman is being born'. The day is not that day but another. Everything feels and looks different. The fisherman casts not in the mere hope of rising a fish but, knowing that he will rise one, concerned only to hook it when it comes. He knows that even the hooking of it is more likely than at other times. Weather, river and fish seem suddenly to be on the angler's side and prepared to do their best for him. This is not the moment to waste in putting on a fresh cast. Hawthorn trees seem to know this and, joining in the happy conspiracy, skilfilly evade the flies that in moments not benign they reach out to clutch greedily behind the angler's back."

 

Chris

 

 

 

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"Study to be quiet."

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Guest pikelines editor

Back on the forum, oh no!

 

Fresh out of putting together the latest PAC Pikelines mag. Phew! hence my absence.

 

2 I can think of...

 

Fred J Taylor... On fishing in general.

 

"I'll be really glad when I've had enough of this!".

 

One other, not sure who?

 

"The float, pleasing in it's appearance, even more pleasing in it's dissapearance!".

 

Nice eh...

 

Off eeling for 4 days tomorrow, may the eel gods be kind.

 

 

 

 

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As darkness falls, big snigs come out to play...

 

Best, Steve Ormrod

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Guest oolichan

This one sums it all up for me:

 

"Perhaps fishing is, for me, only an excuse to be near rivers. If so, I'm glad I thought of it".

 

Roderick Haig-Brown

(A River Never Sleeps)

 

 

"Men can become so caught up in fishing that it actually becomes a grim business... "

 

Sparse Hackle

 

Oolie

 

 

 

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www.coastangler.com

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Guest Steve Burke

I've been spending a lot of time in the last few days re-reading books by my favourite author, Chris Yates. Here's a passage I'd like to share with you from "Casting at the Sun":

 

"....I got to know the river so well I used to talk to it, engaging it in conversation on appropriate topics, subjects that were relevant to the various places we met. For instance,I could go down to a deep bend in the shade of a great ash tree and have a rewarding discussion about perch. During the long summer afternoons I would wade the streaming shallows and we ould gossip endlessly about dace. In the evening I would creep up to the glides between sunken lily beds where I knew the talk would always revolve around chub. In a slowly curling eddy I would ask questions with elderberry or breadflake and the river would reply with roach. Sometimes the river would give me a shock, suddenly shouting "Pike" as I reeled in a dace or a perch. Then I would shout back and we would have a blazing row, which usually left me with a broken line and the river in tears for one of its little fish."

 

Magic!

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

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Guest Vagabond

Pikelines

 

The quote "Oh I SHALL be glad when I've had enough of this" was written up by Fred J, and often attributed to him, but I think you will find in the original, he is reporting the words of his brother Ken, when they were fishing the Gt Ouse in icy February rain.

 

Ken had a really dry wit - another of his :-

 

Ken, Fred and Dick Walker were sitting side by side, legering cheese in a bank-high Gt Ouse flood. Presently Fred hooked a chub, and Ken went to net it for him, but the undercut bank gave way, and in went Ken, clutching the net. By the time he passed Dick at the downstream end of the swim, all that was visible was a landing net poking above the water. Dick grabbed it and heaved. Up came the net with Ken on the other end, who grabbed something solid on the bank and struggled out.

 

His first words were "Thanks Dick, if it hadn't been for you I'd have been soaked"

 

 

 

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Vagabond

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Guest NickInTheNorth

Hi Steve

 

Are you certain about the attribution of the Chris Yates quote, as being from "Casting at the Sun", and not "The Deepening Pool".

 

If you are, then he uses it in both!

 

I agree with you in both respects though. I think Chris Yates is probably the finest contemporary writer on angling (in terms of literary merit and enjoyment), as distinct from necessarily the most knowledgeable (though he's not bad on that level either).

 

And certainly the passage you quote is pure 'magic'.

 

BTW Don't suppose you have a spare copy of "Casting at the Sun" you wish to dispose of too do you?

 

Regards

 

Nick

 

[This message has been edited by NickInTheNorth (edited 29 July 2001).]

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