There is no shortage of information and instruction on how to catch fish, even if there is now a shortage of fish in the seas and some of our rivers. Maybe the two go together: with fewer fish out there to catch, more skill is needed to find and hook them, hence the explosion in expert guidance. The angler who sallies forth with rod and reel, an easy folding chair and a good packed lunch to enjoy the balm of nature, content whether or not he catches anything (a ‘bonus’), always was a bit of a myth. Even if such exist, they will be outnumbered by those who want to catch as many as possible, just like they do in the pages of magazines and the countless online videos.
It’s good to catch something when you go fishing, that’s what I think anyway, but how many do you need to catch? We’ve all heard about the typical stages of a fishing life — first catch something, then a lot, then a big one. Now we seem to have replaced that sequence with ‘catch as many as possible every trip’. Youtube, that cruncher of bandwidth and guzzler of electricity, is packed with fishing videos telling you how to ‘up your catch rate’. There must be a ready audience for all these shorts, which are more often than not marketing vehicles, because they keep getting made. They turn angling into a kind of competition with nature, an impulse which has helped cause the environmental damage all around us and ruined the fishing in so many waterways. Perhaps the desire to turn into a fish-catching paragon, emulating the online experts, pushes anglers to dismiss our more inscrutable motivations and treat nature carelessly. Too many still throw waste lengths of line and other litter on the bank, although I’m pleased to note that some videographers encourage good practice.
So at which point is your catch rate sufficiently upped? It depends on the context. I think it was Thomas McGuane who described continuous action with a fishing rod as ‘utter mortuary boredom’. One can imagine the interest in catching tiddlers one after the other reaching this threshold pretty quickly unless you’re very young. Context really is the crux. For a sea angler, a couple of decent bass would represent a pleasing trip, a pair of whiting less so. With fish like whiting and mackerel, fishermen often use 3-hook rigs, in effect on grounds of efficiency. Mackerel often appear in vast passing shoals, or at least they used to, and you want to catch a few for food or bait before they go. But catching them three at a time soon becomes dull work. After all, you chuck out a lead with feathers, start to retrieve the rig which instantly goes heavy and you pump in your catch. A few minutes of this is plenty except for the fishmonger or wastrel.
The carp angler covets large fish, and a thirty-pounder, say, makes their day. Yet if fish that size came to the rod one after the other there would be no point. On the other hand, one or two fish to the roach angler long trotting would be a disappointment. Part of the enjoyment of fishing for roach, dace and other shoal fish is building your swim and catching a few. Even so, getting dozens every time would blunt the pleasure. Most of my fishing these days is fly fishing for trout. I’m lucky enough to fish some good chalk streams that are full of trout, the reasonable head of wild fish supplemented with stockies for those who catch them for the smoker. At certain times, especially mayfly time, you can catch a few of these barely moving from one position. In such circumstances I ration myself, maybe catch a couple then go and look for some small wild trout or the shadowy grayling that shoal up over the gravels. If I’m fishing a river near to home I may even leave after a couple of fish.
The value of fishing lies as much in how you fish as in how many you catch. Improve your skills by all means but we should remember we’re not out to enumerate anything. The yellow flags and kingfishers deserve as much attention as the fish — or almost as much.
The Secret Angler 