Am I just being a grumpy old git? and a question ..

[Matthew Simmons]

Happily tucked in amongst the trees and fishing/blanking on the Kennet last night, with the river seemingly to myself, another angler dropped into a swim about 50 yds upstream of me a little after dark. Lots of light and commotion as he set up, but he was quite a way from me so it wasn't really affecting me (only his own fishing prospects) apart from mild irritation that people can't seem to do anything in the dark these days without enough candle power to light the runways at Heathrow.

 

I then heard 2 massive splashes as his rigs hit the water and then the unmistakable sound of rods being dropped into bite alarms followed by what sounded like a sustained meteor shower hitting the water - or about a kg of boilies, As there were a large group of swans feeding and digging up weed on this part of the river, we were then treated to the alarms going off every 5 minutes as weed snagged his line. This resulted in the whole process; lights, recasts, buzzer adjustments and loose feed being repeated every 15 minutes. This was seriously irritating and completely unnecessary for barbel fishing on this bit of the Kennet at Thatcham.

 

I moved upstream - I do this anyway if I haven't had a bite within 60 minutes of a cast. I thought about speaking with the angler in question as I passed him, but then wondered what I could say without sounding patronising. It was also very dark so coming up behind another angler and having a sensible conversation would have been really difficult. He'd also put up a large semi-umbrella thing.

 

Am I just being a grumpy old git being irritated by this behaviour and should I have spoken with the angler? How would he have taken my advice to leave the buzzers at home and to cut down on the loose feed when the river is so low? Any thoughts?

 

At least he had no need to use mallets to get his buzzer bars into the bank :-)

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anderoo]

I expect he would have taken your advice badly!

 

I'd have done the same as you, if there is someone who is being a pain I move away and leave them to it. Adding conflict to it would make it worse, I can't see it achieving anything, unless it would make you feel better!

[goosequill]

You are not being a grumpy old git at all. Some people, and a number of anglers, are incredibly stupid. It sounds like the gentleman upstream of you was a perfect example of that gross stupidity. In my experience any reasonable debate with such balloons yields either abuse or grunting noises. One should advoid these species at all costs.

[viney]

Nope you're not being a grumpy old git at all, it really winds me up too! Had it happen a number of times at Brimpton including an incident where I heard 4 anglers approach just as it got dark and start bitching that I was in 'Daves swim' that he had 'primed with a kilo of boilies'. They proceeded to set up in the manor you describe 2 upstream 2 downstream each taking at least 5 casts per rod to hit 'pukka spots' with what sounded like cannon balls as leads. I waited until they were all set up and moved further upstream, no sooner had I stepped away from the swim and the one I imagine was 'Dave' was moving into 'his swim'.

[kirisute]

grumpy yes! but your not in the wrong!!

I too get annoyed when anglers hit the bank like a meteor on steroids!

banging tackle boxes down, dropping things onto the platforms, setting up alarms, shouting across to their mates, then proceeding to spend the rest of their session f'ing and blinding at each other about what they got up to the other night.

you just feel like walking round to them and pushing them in to be honest!!

 

that's why I usually fish alone and try to find the cosiest corner I can far away from other people!

 

to be to be honest I hate people in general anyway!!

so maybe we are just grumpy old men!

[philocalist]

Whilst I agree with what other people have said about not engaging him in a conversation, maybe we are also being a bit less than charitable here?

I'm guessing that at least in part, any irritation you felt was possibly down to what you felt was an 'intrusion' - you were on the river alone, after dark, and quite probably enjoying a bit of peace and quiet when someone else turned up and encroached on your 'space' - even without the circus performance you describe, I'm guessing that him simply arriving there was enough to set the fuse smoldering, and subsequent events did little to help.

In his defence - it was, after all, after dark (and I'm assuming you WERE sat quietly tucked in somewhere?) - he likely had no idea whatsoever that there was someone else bankside, so what possible reason could he have for doing anything other than what came naturaflly to him - in his eyes he was doing no wrong / harm, no?

You may not agree with the way he was fishing - each to their own etc - but after all, he was there for the same reason(s) that you were most likely - relax, unwind and hopefully catch a fish or three.

 

You then voluntarily moved swims which is something you apparently routinely do, and at that stage presumeably could have chosen how far you moved, so to stay within a distance that was still causing you a problem was your choice, if that was the option you chose.

 

The river bank is not for anyones exlusive use - not yours, not mine. Some people seem incapable of being quiet / discrete / fishing without alarms, I agree - alarms particularly are something that are guaranteed to push my buttons too, but at the end of the day, he's fishing / getting his enjoyment his way.

 

Were you being a grumpy git? Yep! ... but I would have felt exactly the same way under the circumstances

Edited October 10, 2013 by philocalist

[Dales]

Ha Ha, Matt if you think you are being grumpy, your not the only one. This is the place to find grumps, the forum is full of them :-)

 

For what it's worth I think you done the right thing, nothing good would likely come from offering any advice. We all want different things from our fishing. He no doubt thinks he is fishing the correct way as do you. Oddly you can meet some of the nicest people while fishing but can also meet some right ####heads.Unfortuantly the #### dont take to kindly to advice.

[Steve Walker]

I wonder if he caught any of those long whiskery river carp he was after?

[Matthew Simmons]

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys - I am glad to hear there is a role in life for grumpy old gits! And it seems I in good company

It wasn't really the intrusion - as said, it was easy to move somewhere else - it was just the sheer futility of it all.

 

Now to be contentious - should buzzers be banned on small rivers in club rules (except for medical grounds). I have even come across anglers using them on the upstream end of the Loddon (even smaller and intimate than the kennet - you could jump over parts of it). There It really is an intrusion and you don't need them. I know it can be argued that on an over-nighter they are needed to alert the angler, the counter argument is that on a small river a carp or barbel will be into a snag before the angler has woken up and reacted. They have their place where there is space for the fish to run and bites infrequent, even for barbel, but on a small river with realistic expectation of regular bites, its overkill and maybe encourages a lack the the necessary alertness.

 

And should there be limitations on bait quantity on smaller rivers - not that that would be easy to police. I am thinking boilies and pellets here, rather than natural baits such as hemp and maggots which get mopped up really quickly by the minnows and smaller stuff. Calpac have a boilie ban on there stretch at Padworth for example and maybe that's too extreme and pointless given that TAA who did have the opposite bank had no such restriction.

 

M

[John Weddup]

Totally agree with your first post and the replies.

 

Looking at the actions of your company they will either catch nothing and return to the carp pool they no doubt come from, or they will catch loads in which case a reappraisal of tactics might be called for.

 

Post 2 about trying to introduce rules such as many small stillwaters do is a no for me. I don't agree with the use of alarms on small sections of river because its silly and chucking in loads of bait as things are slowing down is just plain daft but trying to introduce rules and expect them to be bailiffed or even listened to is nearly as bad.

 

The rivers, are in the main, our last places to fish where we can pretty much do as we please.

 

John

Edited October 10, 2013 by John Weddup