Mr nightmare.

[Derek Gibson]

You know the sort, knows everything there is to know about the water you're fishing. He will give you chapter and verse on the best method/ bait on a particular venue. Worst of all he will not be discouraged despite your best diplomatic attempts,(they seem to have skin like a rhino), until you are driven to say,''thankyou for your advice'', now will you please get lost or words less parliamentary.

The daft thing is these people can pop up anywhere, even in the most remote places.

What's your experience of this kind of person?

 

[binka]

I tend to descend into a head down, full on gruff mode whenever I encounter such types or just ignore them and leave them talking to themselves until they get bored, the problem is that it can take some time with a few folk.

Wide brimmed hats are a great asset when it comes to this

Ignorant in a way but as you say some seem to have skin like a rhino and it's the only way of getting it across that you wish to be left alone.

More than anything I tend to encounter types along the river who are in disbelief, almost pale faced shock, after they've given me chapter and verse on how many barbel they've taken from the swim I'm fishing for perch and when I tell them I'm fishing for perch you'd think they'd just found out that someone had been having a regular ten minutes on their wife for the last fifteen years.

On the flip side when I was fishing my local town centre dam recently there was a young chap in his late teens who quietly sat behind me for a good hour and a half whilst we talked and I enjoyed his input and general banter.

I think it's often the irksome manner which some people just seem to exude without effort, not so much car crash tv as car crash conversation.

 

[thecrow]

I think every tackle shop has one unless he just happens to be there every time I go in, loud mouthed and unwilling to move from his prime position that has been taken up to allow maximum room for others that might be interested in his all encompassing advice on all things fishy. He is the reason I don't visit this tackle shop any longer.

Then there is the bailiff that tells you "should have been here last week " why do waters always seem to have fished better the week before a visit? it may in some cases be the absolute truth but for it to happen so many times... well its akin to a woman getting into a car, it just stretches things a bit .

Water "experts" every lake stream pond river has one that is an endless source of unwanted information about this bait or that swim or what you are doing wrong, no thought that the angler just might want to sort things out for himself, he is there giving advice so often one has to wonder if he ever fished/fishes at all, even when the receiving angler is reduced to just grunting an answer the hint isn't taken.

There are only so many anglers I will take advice from when visiting a new (to me) fishery and I like to be able to choose who it is I ask for advice not get it rammed down my throat when all I want to do is sit quietly and fish.

 

[steve2]

They come in many different guises from the one that knows it all to the one that appears behind after you have walked miles to be on your own. There is also the one that wants to fish your swim from 100 yards away on the other bank. I have been told many times you wont catch on that here and done it. You will never catch on lures on here; this is a live bait water/ dead bait water.


But there is also the one that puts you right. I met one once many years ago when struggling to catch barbel when on holiday at Throop. He proved to me just how easy it was to catch if you went about in the right way. Don’t know who he was but he certainly knew how to catch them. What was this method, rolling luncheon meat. Well known now but not at that time, the early 70’s.

 

[peterjg]

I apologise and tell them that I am going deaf and if they keep on I then tell them to ****** off!

 

[theartist]

Dare I say it but often these folk you see on fisheries are often the bailiffs, most are good and only give info when asked but some get carried away. End of the day you can choose what info you want to apply and the day is too long to let someones over exuberance ruin it.

The flip side are strangers who stand behind you watching without saying anything especially somewhere remote - very disconcerting.

 

[john step]

I think they are spawned in the water like mosquitos as they seem to be ever present.

There was a small section of the upper Lea on the Verulam Club. It had a small car park which was locked.(Or it was 20yrs ago)
It is so shallow that to get the most from it you have to stay low and quiet.
I was startled by a figure in a WHITE coat in full view of the fish standing behind me.
He started to tell me there was good fishing to be had there.

I opened by asking if he was a member." No, buts its OK me being here because I USED to be a member." He then showed me his key dangling from a chain.

I was so pi$$ed off that the chub had disappeared I just exploded and told him to Flick off.

They are not always a Mr Nightmare. There was a Mrs Nightmare during a club match at Molesey on the Thames a public open space.
One member was fishing downstream of an island and she appeared complete with two Shyte machines. She started to lecture him that the open space was a swan sanctuary ..which it wasn't.

She then proceeded throw white bread in to attract the swans to where he was pegged. She then produced a camera for the benefit of the local press to whom she was going to complain.

She even called the police who turned up and tried to put her right.

As I intimated in a different post that there are more out than in.:wh

 

[theartist]

Every river has a mad swan woman - maternal instincts play havok on women of a certain age

 

[john step]

Dare I say it but often these folk you see on fisheries are often the bailiffs, most are good and only give info when asked but some get carried away..

Agreed. The lazy so and so who collects money on a well known section of the lower Trent who insists on administering advice through the window of his car with the engine running behind you.

You just can't get rid of him until he sees someone who is a more "in" person to drive to and plague them. I havn't been there for a while now!!!

IF YOU ARE ABLE TO READ AND YOU READ THIS.......YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

 

[binka]

Every river has a mad swan woman

Lol, that is so true!

Add park lakes to that too, I had one berate me for fishing shortly after a local angling association took over a small park lake where fishing was previously banned.

She even tried to ridicule me when I chucked in a tangerine sized ball of groundbait, saying that there was nothing in there big enough which could possibly eat something that size mg:

Hey stick around missus, i'll show ya something big...

 

[sam vimes]

It's very easy to mock, we've all encountered such characters. However, even the blokes that I consider to be one of these characters have similar tales. No one ever admits to being one of them. I rather suspect that we are all one of these characters to someone. There are some right miserable buggers out there that would complain if a blind, deaf, mute sat behind them for half an hour.

 

[robtherake]

Every river has a mad swan woman - maternal instincts play havok on women of a certain age

It's a goose and duck lady at one of my local lakes, though she seems reasonably normal if you can get her to talk about anything other than wildfowl. She spends part of her day picking up stale bread from local businesses, convinced that her darling birds would expire without it, bless her.

The loonies from the estate that rings the place are another thing entirely. The mad; the terminally depressed; the angry; the self-righteous - they're all represented. I had to pack in the evening sessions to avoid the hard-core angries and the lost. The first were borderline terrifying; the latter horribly depressing. The local angling know-alls were a cake-walk by comparison.

 

[rayner]

It's very easy to mock, There are some right miserable buggers out there that would complain if a blind, deaf, mute sat behind them for half an hour.

That'll be me then, I'm OK with a chat with mates but draw the line at some random lurker that's only there because they can't hold a conversation with their wife.
If fisheries charged for folk wandering round getting in the way they'd hopefully stay away

 

[Derek Gibson]

It's very easy to mock, we've all encountered such characters. However, even the blokes that I consider to be one of these characters have similar tales. No one ever admits to being one of them. I rather suspect that we are all one of these characters to someone. There are some right miserable buggers out there that would complain if a blind, deaf, mute sat behind them for half an hour.

There is mockery in my case Sam, in fact I would suggest that it's Mr Nightmare who is taking the **** in such situations.

When I have gone to the trouble of finding some secluded/ remote stretch of river or drain for no more than peace and quiet, such intrusions are not welcome. And bear in mind I am by nature a mobile angler.

I can only guess what impact these people have on the stationary angler. At least I can walk away, but even that wears thin after a while.

 

[bullet]

I had a women barking at me from the other side of the river recently.
"Are you local?"
"Yes", I say

"There are some children downstream pulling all the weed out"

"Bloody good job" I say, " you have to pay good money for that in other parts"

That got rid of her.

 

[ken more]

I may have told this before, but like it so i'll tell it again. Fishing the River Wharfe at Linton with my Lad, this guy and his and his mate come marching by fully togged up in neoprene waders and Sh!t loads of gear. They see us releasing our 2nd Barbel of the day and he shouts "No point in fishing here with the River in this F@cking state (as if it was the rivers fault that there was a bit of water) you will never catch "Owt,waste of F@ckin time mate"

 

[103841]

I've been fishing a weir in Canterbury several times this week, a lot of footfall passing by and some quite nice banter, except Mr Nightmare who has turned up on each and every occasion and tells me of his mates catches of the previous day, record fish everywhere. He then goes onto tell me the fish he has spotted whilst walking the river, he either has eyesight like no other or an extremely vivid imagination.

 

[Philip]

There are some right miserable buggers out there that would complain if a blind, deaf, mute sat behind them for half an hour

I shouldnt but i did laugh. I wouldnt complain but i would might wonder what he was doing there given he would be unable to know i was even fishing.

---------- Post added at 16:51 ---------- Previous post was at 15:51 ----------

She even tried to ridicule me when I chucked in a tangerine sized ball of groundbait, saying that there was nothing in there big enough which could possibly eat something that size

Oh yes i have had that too. The people who think they know more but actually know allot less and what makes it worse is they dont even realise they know less. This has happened a few times Especially over in France where the average angler tends to be a bit less up to date on more modern methods than their uk counterparts.

I recall one loud albeit well meaning chap who watched me lob my melon sized method ball authoritivly tell me i needed to use a much smaller bait if i wanted to catch anything as "nothing in here has a mouth that big"

A more recent one was two young lads kitted up with all the latest stuff stop behind me as i was setting up a trotting rod with a centerpin. I could hear them laughing under thier breath to each other then one of them says to me in a condesending tone - there are no trout in here you know.

I did contemplate trying to explain to them what the reel was but you literally dont know where to even start on some occasions!

 

[chrissh]

I've been fishing a weir in Canterbury several times this week, a lot of footfall passing by and some quite nice banter, except Mr Nightmare who has turned up on each and every occasion and tells me of his mates catches of the previous day, record fish everywhere. He then goes onto tell me the fish he has spotted whilst walking the river, he either has eyesight like no other or an extremely vivid imagination.

That must be my mate he can turn a 2oz Gudgeon into a 10lb Barbel, every fish puts on 5lb and grows a foot after it out of the landing net and back in the water … every fly that land on the water is a fish rising

 

[mikench]

A casual chat with a fellow angler on my current favourite water revealed that there were some fabulous fish in each pool including carp to 30lb. My eyes glazed over when he mentioned perch to 6lb in one lake!! Binka eat your heart out! by the time I had made my excuses I needed a prescription for valium