Non Anglers

[Melvin]

Whilst reading at an undisclosed venue, i came across this statement and it made me think

 

jonnyboy

Sr. Member

Re:Piking cliches

« Reply #47 on: Yesterday at 04:18:09pm »

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From non-anglers; "do you throw em back?"

 

If one more of em asks me that..............

 

I cant ever remember telling someone who doesn't fish that i am a fisherman and them not "asking do you keep them ? " and when you tell them that you throw them back you are faced with a look of confusion. Now i live on the coast so could it be that they are aware some fish caught by rod in the sea are eaten.

 

Just thinking that perhaps if we are to promote what it is we do, it is about telling non anglers that we don't kill everything we catch.

 

(bring back Passion for angling !! or a Carp Big Brother show, One lake 15 peeps and Bivvies etc etc )

 

Could peeps who live inland comment on non anglers responses when you tell them you fish, just for interest.

[GlennB]

Could peeps who live inland comment on non anglers responses when you tell them you fish, just for interest.

 

When I tell them I put the fish back they mostly just look mystified and ask "why?"

 

Then there is (or used to be) a daft debate where I explain than they're mostly not very good eating anyway, and they ask why bother in the first place, and I explain it's the peace and quiet and just the trill thrill of it, and so on on and so on .... so mostly I try to avoid the whole discussion

[Guest Ferret1959]

Just tell um you keep the biggest one for the pot but you haven't caught it yet.

[Andrew Burgess]

Just tell um you keep the biggest one for the pot but you haven't caught it yet.

 

 

[Peter Sharpe]

If anybody ever asks me, I always have to explain that I certainly don't throw them back, but lower them gently into the water and support them until they swim off.

[Wordbender]

When told I 'put them back', I'm often asked 'What's the point of catching them, then?'

 

This may seem a fair question, until you realise it's likely to be asked by someone who dedicates stupid amounts of their time and money to things that are every bit as 'pointless' as angling.

 

Golf - you hit a ball and walk after it. What's the point?

Football - you run around a field chasing a ball with lots of other people. What's the point in that then?

Pets - we don't need them, yet we invite them into our lives. Point?

A painting or an ornament - does it earn its keep in a practical way? Then surely there's no point to having them?

Listening to music - pointless in the extreme.

 

The fact is, we do stuff that's needed and stuff we enjoy. The 'point' of our chosen pursuits is pleasure, pure and simple. Without these pointless pleasures life would be a dreary affair, indeed.

 

Whenever I'm asked why I go fishing, I reply 'If I explained even half of the pleasures I get from it, we'd be here for hours'. That usually shuts 'em up.

[Alan Stubbs]

Many of my work colleagues asked me the same question, and I answered 'It promotes healthy living and an interest in the outdoors.... it also satifies the hunting instinct, which in turn stops me killing you!'

[lidoman]

Couldn't have put it better myself wordbender

 

Alan LOL

[BoozleBear]

I live inland, and yes, I get asked it everytime as well: "well, what's the point then."

 

I tell them it's for the sport, and that get's an equally confusing look!

 

After a few years of these irritating exchanges, here's what I now say. It either leaves them in a state of understanding - or if not, then they're too stupid to bother with!...

 

When people imagine fishing they picture somebody on a canal bank picking out one tiddler every two hours and getting cold in the process. I ask them to picture themselves catching a big fish. Imagine trying to pull a wet pillow in just with one hook attaching it to a line, and then imagine that pillow suddenly powering off at a rate of knots, so strong that 10 minutes later your arm is killing you and then you finally get the net over it and haul it in to weigh it after unhooking it. Then imagine that pillow isn't a pillow, but a beatiful Carp, Pike, Barbel or whatever.

 

I also like saying that my two favourite emotions are relaxation and excitement, both of which go hand in hand in fishing. And if satisfaction is added at the end of a session then all the better.

 

I have a mate who likes formula 1, a sport I don't much care for. However, I don't say "isn't it really boring just watching cars go round and round", and understand how he could get a buzz from it. If only people would stop and think for a bit before asking such daft questions, they probably wouldn't need to ask them!

 

That's my two penceworth.

[Leon Roskilly]

You could try printing this off and keeping it handy to give them

 

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/leon26.htm

 

 

When I stand on a riverbank, not as an angler, I am enchanted.

 

Enchanted by the flow of the water, and the reflections of clouds.

 

Enchanted by the bank-side vegetation, and the nodding flowers.

 

By the birdlife as it clacks and quacks, peeps and sings, and flashes by in iridescent feathers.

 

And by the smells of crushed river mint, and water parsley and fragrant flowers.

 

Yet, not as an angler, I am soon bored, and turn away, not knowing what else there is to see.

 

A fleeting few moments that refresh the soul.

 

 

 

But when I come to the water as an angler, I come not to see, though see I do, but to engage the water as a creature of the river, and to learn, and to play a part.

 

As a mock predator, my senses are sharpened and my observation made far keener than any casual onlooker.

 

I see beneath the surface, just a little with my eyes, more so, much more so, with my mind.

 

Building a picture of that unseen land from small clues of swirling water and growing weed, and from the knowledge that I have learned of the habits of the creatures there.

 

Not for a few moments, or for many minutes, but for hours on end, I will delight in what nature has to reveal.

 

Even when fingers burn cold, or cold wind driven rain whips against my face, I will stay and see and listen and enjoy.

 

‘You don’t have to be an angler to enjoy going to the river’, they say.

 

And by saying that betray a lack of understanding, not only of an anglers’ passion, but of what is missing from their lives.

 

As they miss the sound of a gnawing vole, the site of a chub rising to a struggling fly, the companionship of a robber robin, and a sunburst through an evening mist.

 

Because they paused, and then passed by.

 

And having missed all of this, I could never explain to them the thrill of a dipping float, nor holding in my hands a piece of gold alive, and watching it return with a casual grace back to that half mysterious place below where their vision ceases, and an angler’s vision goes.

 

Tight Lines - leon