Not Actually Fishing!

Not managed to go fishing this week so just some general thoughts. Our club’s Facebook page has had quite a discussion about discarded tackle, in particular rigs which have been cast across to an island and caught in the bushes and been left dangling with the bait in easy reach for ducks. They have had to launch boats several times to either rescue a hooked duck or remove the rigs. Basically what they are saying is that you should learn to cast the proper distance and use a line clip. Reading about the locations where this happened I am pleased that none of them are mine but it did make me feel guilty as I have lost a few method feeders recently! One of the bailiffs posted a YouTube link on how to use the clip which was very informative and so I am determined to do better in future and become a better angler!

The other regular posts which come up are, leaving litter on the bank and not locking the gates behind you when you leave. I am sure that our club is not the only one that has these issues although I have to say that for me personally I can’t understand why anyone would do either of these things but then I guess that is the way I was brought up! Taking care of the environment is such a natural thing to do that it shouldn’t need explaining and as for gates you should always leave them as you find them, which in the club’s case is locked. Several reasons for this including security and keeping strangers off club waters. As far as the landowners are concerned they don’t want to wake up one morning and find a load of caravans parked next to their lake!

Now to photos. I want to record the fish that I catch and the places that I have fished and for this my smart phone is ideal. In fact my photos on my computer have become a diary of my life and a way of checking where and when things have happened. Such a change from when I had to scrape together the money to buy a film and have it developed and I was very careful with what I actually photographed, now I literally have tens of thousands of pictures. Anyway, I digress, as I said the phone is fine for most things but it doesn’t have a telephoto lens, sure you can use the digital zoom but the quality of the picture soon deteriorates. I like taking pictures and use them on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts and as I have said I get to see nature and would like to have some decent pictures which the phone can’t manage. I have got a very good bridge camera but the idea of taking it to the bank where it can get wet and muddy doesn’t appeal so I have been wondering what to do. Then I remembered that tucked away in a drawer somewhere I have a small compact camera so I found it and had a look. Now I bought this camera some years ago just before phones with cameras came out and made them redundant so I haven’t used it much. To my delight I found that it has an optical zoom and I tried it out from the bedroom window but as I live on an estate I can’t see far so haven’t really much idea whether it will be any good. The only thing to do is to take it with me and see how it performs, I will let you know!

Lastly, I have been thinking about this business of putting a carp rod out while I am float or quiver tip fishing. I thought that I would have a go at catching carp after seeing other anglers catching them and so bought a rod and was lucky enough to catch almost immediately last summer. My catch rate diminished during the autumn and so I gave up on carp and concentrated on river fishing but have gone back to still waters in the close season and have had my carp rod out again but with no luck. Our club waters are not highly stocked with carp and you won’t be pulling one out every five minutes so patience is needed and that is something that I don’t have when fishing, I like to be doing something even if I am not catching anything. What I am worried about is by having two different styles of rods out am I not concentrating on either one properly? Was my success last summer just a fluke? If I put two carp rods out what will I do then? I suppose that I could take a book to pass the time but I could sit at home and read. So the question is, what do carp anglers do to pass the time? I am still mulling this over and would appreciate any comments below. 

Well, that’s it for this week, quite a long blog for not going fishing! I hope that I will be back on the bank for next week!

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