Just Fishing

Maybe anglers should adopt a pb system not of weights but of enjoyemnt

pb fishing with a mate - forget what you catch enjoy the crack

pb fishing with a novice - enjoy passing on what you know (or don't know in my case)

pb days fishing - enjoying the sport of angling

pb spur of the moment - A few hours snatched fishing at the last minute - bait hastily grabbed and tackle chucked in car resulting a better day than when you have carefully planned everything

Tally Ho

Sounds good to me, it's not all about the biggest catch or the biggest fish.

Spur of the moment, kit hastily grabbed means you have to think about your fishing and utilise what kit youve got to fit in with the situation youre faced. Makes us learn more stuff. I ran a match once where everyone had to swop with the person on their left halfway through. Being put in a situation with someone elses kit and bait and tactics was fun.

Some of the most enjoyable fishing session have been when the chance get away to fish came up and the bait and kit was kept to an absolute minimum to make the most of the couple of hours I had. Ok so I didn't catch any monsters - just to be on the bank when 1/2 an hour before I thought i'd be sat in doors means that any fish I catch are a bonus.

Trev - totaly agree old chap - when you have to "make do" with what bait you can "nick" from the pantry makes you think about how and where to present it.

Tally Ho

I can hardly ever catch my intended quarry, unless I'm after pike and even then that doesn't go to plan, I fished a very pikey looking stretch of canal over the bank hol weekend, long stretches of far bank reed cover, nicely overcast and didn't even have a follow except from a perch which was about a 3rd of the size of the lure I was using, he was certainly optimistic to say the least did make me laugh though. To use a Matt Hayes expression "I know I was fishing the best I could" just one of those days I guess. Still I enjoyed the session which was a spur of the moment idea, although getting caught in a short sharp shower I wished I'd been a little less hasty and grabbed my coat!

One thing I have discovered after many years of fishing is that there is no such thing as a "Personal Best" if it means the biggest fish of a certain species caught.

When I think back, my personal bests were days I enjoyed most. These are the days I remember and it was the days spent in good company that I remember most.

Peter Jacobs will remember the time when I extracted two "uncatchable" chub from beneath a bridge on the Hampshire Avon. They were certainly not the biggest chub I have ever caught, but they were two of the best.

Then there was the time I sat fishing for tench with Peter Stone on a gravel pit in Oxfordshire. Neither of us had a bite, but by crikey did we talk up a storm.

That truly was a personal best!!!

Red Letter days lads.

Its not all about catching fish, as the posts above will tell you.

To me all anglers are pleasure anglers, and i realy dont care who you are, or what you have done in the sport, at the end of the day we go back time after time, WHY???. simple because of the PLEASURE we get from this great sport.

I've caught record fish, but have got more enjoyment some days by being with mates and blanking, i said blanking.

FISHING IS A PLEASURE LONG MAY WE ALL ENJOY IT.