Why Fishing

Why do you like fishing?

For me it has always been the anticipation, whether as a young lad and looking forward to be taken fishing, or even now as i am older, the anticipation of the What if this is the day, the time, the one that beats all other days it gives me butterflies even now.

What makes you brave the elements, put up with all the disappointments, spend all your spare hard earned cash .... just to go fishing?

Anticipation, no doubt about it.
Scenery ain't bad either, most of the time.

Corny, but I like being out in the open, fishing also gives you a buzz when you catch something and you also need to do a bit of thinking.

Probably some need to hunt left over from the days when we had to get food for ourselves

No idea really it's a multitude of things. All I know is that I believe you are born an angler.

Judas Priest said:

No idea really it's a multitude of things. All I know is that I believe you are born an angler.

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yep i think thats right

For me, I suppose I just love my own company! Nothing better than sitting in beautiful surroundings with peace and quiet with just my own thoughts after a hectic week in work...

Oh - and that excitement right down in your gut when that floats moves...

My other half thinks I go just to get away from her for a while................ clever girl

Judas Priest said:

No idea really it's a multitude of things. All I know is that I believe you are born an angler

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Agreed, the only thing that I would add is that the reasons change from time to time.

Sometimes I've got my hunting head on and I like to fish on my own. Other times I enjoy the company of some very good friends that I fish with.

Carp, Pike, Barbel, Tench I can get very revved up about.

Solving a problem, catching on a rod that I've made. Fishing a new water, Spending time at my little piece of heaven (the syndicate lake that I've run for the last 20 years), watching the water, enjoying the natural world. A new bait, rig etc.

As the song in the Sound of Music, These are a few of my favourite things!mg:

Cheers guys, whatever pulls your string, enjoy.

Stu

I agree with all that has been said before. I think angling also satisfies the collector's urge - how many of us have far more lures or floats than we need? It also gives the would-be inventors something to devise, with the new baits, rigs, flavourings etc that they can dream up.
If you like being near water, you can also get to explore miles of lake or river that would never be open to the general public.

I just love being outdoors and fishing is such a great way to unwind. Can't think of nothing better than a day by a nice river with all the wild things around me.

Mr Dalton,

If you saw how many lures I have at home you would think I was selling the dam things on Ebay! mg:

Don't believe for one minute we are born to go fishing or that is a connection with a primeval urge to be a hunter, it is far simpler than that.

It is one of the few things we can do all through a lifetime that keeps us in touch with our childhood, we can still be kids.

Think about it, every aspect is covered, including joining a gang, a bit of bullying by some now and again, jealousy, just acting stupidly, showing off, as well as anticipation, collecting, success, failure...............all aspects of life, especially childhood life, is there.

Thats my opinion!

I agree with everything said so far, plus angling is the only sport where regardless of age,gender,or wealth
you could be a British record holder.

The challenge, the trickier it is to find the answer, the sweeter the taste of success.
Being at one with nature.
The people, well most of them.

Steve Pope said:

Don't believe for one minute we are born to go fishing or that is a connection with a primeval urge to be a hunter, it is far simpler than that.

It is one of the few things we can do all through a lifetime that keeps us in touch with our childhood, we can still be kids.

Think about it, every aspect is covered, including joining a gang, a bit of bullying by some now and again, jealousy, just acting stupidly, showing off, as well as anticipation, collecting, success, failure...............all aspects of life, especially childhood life, is there.

Thats my opinion!

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Probably a lot in that..... I had an obsession with water... just always remember being near the stuff. Wether begging my nan and grandad to take me to feed the ducks or captivated by the wonder of a fish pond.... Later a Mill pool with visible fish - by this time started to catch a few - in competition with my brother.

First proper rod and moving to a village with a river running through it - coupled with the early responsibility of being entrusted to go unaccompanied for the first time

Spending time with my dad on access visits cleaning nets, baiting lobster pots and dawn forays off the coast to lift nets and pots..... it was like panning for silver and gold!

Though living near the coast in my earliest years, it was always fresh water that had the strongest pull - Casting into the turbulent salty abyss required faith - rivers offered the certainty of visible fish.

Hormones did drag me into the world of growing up briefly (and great fun that was too)... but thankful that I was drawn back to the optimism and excitement found in my childhood obsession.

Nurture or nature? I'm not sure - but most children have a sense of curiosity and the watery element has a powerful draw on the soul. Its no wonder our earliest ancestors held water in such high religious regard.....

Steve Pope said:

It is one of the few things we can do all through a lifetime that keeps us in touch with our childhood, we can still be kids.

Think about it, every aspect is covered, including joining a gang, a bit of bullying by some now and again, jealousy, just acting stupidly, showing off, as well as anticipation, collecting, success, failure...............all aspects of life, especially childhood life, is there.

Thats my opinion!

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That may be your reason Steve, each to their own I suppose, but I still stand by that some folks are born an angler for life rather than made into an angler.

Judas Priest said:

That may be your reason Steve, each to their own I suppose, but I still stand by that some folks are born an angler for life rather than made into an angler.

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I think its like a lot of things. The latent potential is there waiting for the right spark at the right time. For me it grew out of a chilhood love for nature.wildlife,the countryside etc etc . But fishing had not occured to me probably as none of my family or friends [so I thought !] fished.

Then one day I went round my best mates house and he had all his fishing gear out. I didn't even know he fished but I was absolutely enthralled with it all. That was the spark I needed and within a few weeks I knew I would be an angler for the rest of my life. Was I born an angler or was I made one ? I dont know but however it happened I'm glad it did.

Thank God he wasn't a golfer !

Exactly s-kippy. It was always there if a little dormant in the early years. Much in the same way some are natural fish catchers whilst others have to work at it.

Born to fish or not? It ‘s not something I can put my finger on. The River Lea/Lee ran past our rear garden in Broxbourne during the first few years of my life (1948-52), my father was one of the pre-war Lea fishermen, I can’t remember life before fishing.

On the other hand I stopped fishing some years before my son was born as I was building up my business, when he was eight he asked if I would take him fishing – just like that, straight out of the blue. I had never spoken to him about fishing or the fact that all my old tackle was still in the garage – I took him to the Colne and Loddon and he was ‘hooked for life’, so was I again after missing out on the 80's.
Jerry
PS With the Colne just down the road it was a regular route for walking the dog from his pushchair days - then back along the canal............maybe triggered something off.

Steve Pope said:

Don't believe for one minute we are born to go fishing or that is a connection with a primeval urge to be a hunter, it is far simpler than that.

It is one of the few things we can do all through a lifetime that keeps us in touch with our childhood, we can still be kids.

Think about it, every aspect is covered, including joining a gang, a bit of bullying by some now and again, jealousy, just acting stupidly, showing off, as well as anticipation, collecting, success, failure...............all aspects of life, especially childhood life, is there.

Thats my opinion!

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I'm of the primaeval urge school. We are only a few thousand years away from our hunter gatherer ancestors and in evolutionary terms that is nothing.

The hunting urge is still strong within us all except that these days we are hunting the biggest house, the best job, the fastest car etc etc. some men are serial womanisers, who will openly admit the conquest is not the buzz, the real buzz is in the thrill of the chase.
Ironically even those who profess to be against traditional forms of hunting and so called cruelty to animals are satisfying their own hunting urge by the tactics they use, tracking their prey, learning their habits and ultimately killing off what they see as wrong.

If you look at the hunter gatherer tribes which still survive today you can clearly see they work in a group or if you like 'a gang', there is always a bit of jockeying for position within the group or you could say 'a bit of bullying by some now and again, jealousy, just acting stupidly, showing off', and the 'anticipation, collecting, success, failure' are what the hunting party thrives on and exists for. The argument for trying to separate fishing from a primaeval urge to hunt does not stand up to scrutiny.

That's my opinion!

Nobody in my immediate family fished but with the river Severn running past our house and occasionally through it I always had a fascination for it and the seldom glimpsed, shadowy shapes which inhabited its depths.
And as kids fishing was what we did; along with shooting at anything which burrowed, climbed trees or flew and if we were lucky a bit of ferreting with a couple of the old boys from the village.

Perhaps if I had been brought up in a city I would have been a poorer angler but a better businessman, who knows?

Outdoors, countryside, solitude, unpredictability, anticipation, sense of achievement when you catch your quarry, outright excitement when fighting a large fish - to me it is simply a wonderful way to wind down from a full on work life.

I do not subscribe to the 'born to fish' theory. But what is undoubtedly true is that a very high percentage of people who try fishing as a child, stay with it thoughout their whole lives.

Testament indeed to a glorious pastime.