"Swim" as a noun.

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dezza

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To my knowledge. it is only we anglers who use the word "swim", as a noun, and most times we mean it as the bit of water we are fishing, whether that water is in lake or river.

Many years ago there was a bit of a debate between a few top anglers, many of which stated that "swim" referred to the water you were fishing in a river. The water you were fishing in a lake or other still water should be called a "pitch".

But today we tend to call many fishing spots - swims. Some of us call them - "pegs", a term I truly detest, which seems to infer that you are obliged to stay pegged and not to move.

Fred J Taylor's first book was called "Favourite Swims" - and stillwater pitches.

Interesting isn't it?
 
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Merv Harrison

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Ron The Hat Clay said:
Some of us call them - "pegs", a term I truly detest, which seems to infer that you are obliged to stay pegged and not to move.
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I would have thought that was self explanatory Ron, from match fishing days when 'swims' were 'pegged out', (numbered), , and you were obliged to fish within the boundary of your peg, AND, not move .
 
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dezza

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Merv Harrison said:
I would have thought that was self explanatory Ron, from match fishing days when 'swims' were 'pegged out', (numbered), , and you were obliged to fish within the boundary of your peg, AND, not move .
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That's probably why I have never been a match fisherman.
 
sam vimes

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Many rivers and stillwaters, even stretches that are rarely match fished, are "pegs". They are pegged with permanent numbered markers. It's not really a shock that many of us refer to a "peg", regardless of whether we're match anglers of not. Any notion that a non-match angler is somehow tied to a peg is nonesense.

I would quite happily walk to a peg then fish the swim there. Using either term is not mutually exclusive. However, regardless of whether or not I've used a tent or bivvy, I will never refer to a fishing spot as a pitch.
 
Neil Maidment

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A "peg" denotes where a "swim" can be fished from (or must be fished from in match terms).

Never, ever heard or seen that combination referred to as a "pitch" except by long stay anglers using bivvys.
 
little oik

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I wonder what people call these new fangled Holiday chalets that are springing up that have decking that you can fish from 3 or 4 foot away from the french doors .
 
Peter Jacobs

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Let's not forget either that the 'great man' himself entitled one of his books (actually an anthology of his Angling Times articles) publised in 1959 "Walker's Pitch" as well.

I think most modern anglers today refer to a 'swim' or a 'peg' if in a match.

Personally I've never lost any sleep over whatever its called providing of course that there is fish-holding water in front of it LOL
 
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