the joys of late summer fishing

i've just returned home from a days fishing with my wife and kids.i didn't fish but set up the boys and helped out landing fish and baiting the swims(and trying to stop callum eating pellets).lots of fish were caught,kyle landing his biggest ever bream of 4lb and callum just enjoyed telling everyone he won when he caught another fish.we had a barbie with a few sausages and whilst sat quietly with a sausage cob i sat looked and listened.greenfinches and goldfinches fighting out who sang the best,the robin telling all and sundry this was his patch,blackbirds squabbling in the hedges,the mistle thrush withhis melodic song.in the distance a cuckoo probably letting know that it was time to depart our shores until next spring.swifts chasing midges twisting and turning reminiscent of dogfights between spitfires and messerschmits.dragonflies showing their grace landing on the tip of the pole floats,the flash of the kingfisher shooting across the lake like a supersonic dart.i looked down watching a wasp trying and succeeding to wrestle a pellet sized piece of sausage away.and, to top it all my boys laughing and smiling all day catching fish and losing fish.late summer fishing does it get much better than this?

you did the right thing not fishing ..nice day nice story.

It's amazing how many anglers just dont notice what is going on around them. I sit and watch the birds, feed the robin that taps on the bait box (this might have something to do with why I dont catch many fish /forum/smilies/embarassed_smiley.gif). I went to an angling fayre on the ribble this summer with a friend who loves river fishing, my son was also with us, he was 7. As we walked along the banks i noticed loads of holes in the high sand bankings, I asked my friend what she thought they were, "rat holes" she asked. "No, they are sand martins nests", she couldn't believe that birds made nests in holes lol. By the way, that same person also thought robins only come out at christmas /forum/smilies/thinking_smiley.gif.Now when we are out together I try to point different things out to her to try and make her start noticing what is going on around her all the time. Nature is a wonderful thing, and us anglers are blessed to be out in the middle of it, just a pity we dont all appreciate it /forum/smilies/sad_smiley.gif

No Will, it doesn't get much better than that. What a lovely post - it really shows what fishing is all about.