There's more to fishing than catching fish!

As anglers, we are often in a privilege position of being able to get closer to nature than your average joe public. Part of the pleasure I get from fishing, is the wonderful wildlife and the beautiful countryside we are able to experience.

A couple of seasons ago whilst fishing the Middle Trent, I was blessed each evening with the sight of the ghostly figure of a barn owl hunting low over the meadows, often just a few feet away.

The kingfisher seems to be increasing in numbers and now appears everytime I go fishing. Usually the first sign is the piping call and then the flash of irridescent blue as they fly by. I've not been lucky enough yet to have one land on the end of my fishing rod, but I've had the spectacular view of them diving for fish close by.

On one particular stretch of the Trent, there are a colony of sandmartins nesting in the riverbank (I wonder what's happened to them this year with the river in unseasonly high flood). Early in the season last year the sandmartins where skimming over the water as they usually do, when a sudden commotion caught my eye. A falcon of some kind had swooped out of the trees and taken a bird in mid-air. All that was left was the odd feather floating past my position in the water.

Fishing gives us the chance to escape from the stressful world of work and everyday life into another, better world of the countryside, nature and wildlife.

Like me, I'm sure there are many of you out there who have experienced some wonderful and sometimes strange views that nature has to offer.


Yes, there is definitely more to fishing than just catching fish.

That's why it's my religion.

Love it.

Fished a small extremely overgrown quarry pond last saturday thats not much bigger than a garden pond, and whilst i only caught 1 eel all day this was more than made up by the abundance of wildlife condensed into such a small area.

Here's what i saw

loads of damsel flies in metalic blue, green, and red.

loads of dragon flies in various colours,

a newt

peregrin falcons flying and screeching overhead

a king fisher flew past a few times and perched on a near by branch

so a huge hornet fly past

not to mention all the insects.

Who else gets to see all this wildlife not many people except us anglers.

Some people did turn up with binoculars to see the peregrins but missed them if they had just sat there quietly fishing they would have seen the falcons and alot more.

should get a good camera really

I used to fish on the Rochdale Canal and it was a great joy on a sunday morning to see the Ramsbottom womens jogging team sprint past, and not a bra between them, I just love wildlife

Know what you mean Monk. You can easily miss a pull on your quiver gawping at them bottoms!


The blue and green damsels are probably the same sp. Nicky, common blue. The females are more green in colour.

We had one lake where within 30 minutes we'd spotted 7 different specie of dragonfly including some darters. They can be very territorial though with young ones challenging older ones for area.

I have seen some incredible sights in my life whilst out fishing.

The most memorable was a fully grown leopard!

My best bit of natural history was a couple banging away like a good 'un in a cornfield next to a river.

Must have been The Monk and a ruffe slapper!

There?s very little of the British native flora and fauna that I haven?t seen many, many times over in my angling lifetime.
Many an illustrious blank has been ruined by seeing something rare or unusual stopping me going home growling.

I once spent two days of daylight hours (sport wasn?t hectic) observing whirly gig beetles to see whether there was a pattern or structure to their whiling.

Conclusion - no, they?re just iritic and random with their whirling with no apparent purpose.

Not seen many leopards on the banks of the Trent ron, but there is a big old bull and his harem of cows in a field where I park my car on the Trent.

What is it with cows and cars. I spend half my time chasing the cows off, as they seem to think my car is a giant lollipop! Mind you, when the bull turns up, he can do as he likes!!! He also has a habit of standing behind me whilst I'm fishing, which can be a bit unnerving.

Bulls frighten the crap out of me, I can remeber coming face to face with the biggest bulls I`d ever seen in my life, it appeared through thick fog as I was walking across a field towards the Dane fully ladened with tackle, to say I crapped myself is an understatment, it had a long chain around its neck with this large barrel thing hanging from it, which I susspect was some kind of anti-charging device On another occassion as a child I was walking across a field and a bull charged me, I ran for a railway fence and just managed to get over it when this bull hit and destroyed part of the fence, evil bast**rd, I could never be a bull fighter

I'll bet the bull was fully ladened with tackle too mate!

During my holiday on the norfolk broads last week , i watched a Barn owl hunting over a field , bats skimming over the water , grass snakes swimming across the river , Kingfishers and a Marsh harrier tracking , hovering and then swooping on prey alongside the river near Horning . The problem is that sometimes the wildlife takes my eye and i don't concentrate on the fishing !!!

I remember one nights carping before I thought about getting beta lights on my swingers, I found a glow bug on the ground and placed him (or her) on the swinger. She stayed on there for several hours, long after I'd gone to sleep. So - no bites.

Best i've seen was when roving from peg to peg. Creeping quietly up to my next peg some very beautiful wildlife leapt up in surprise. A very pretty young lady sunbathing topless on the bank.

Bitch scared the fish off!!!!