Thinking about your continuance of fishing as you get older

[mark brailsford 2]

I was once told that age is a number!
I look at my dad who, at the age of 73 still gets up every day and tends to his birds on his small holding and then takes our lurcher's on a 3 mile walk, twice a day and then goes and does a shift on his allotment even though he has a lung condition from working in a foundry all his life but I know everybody is different. Cyril Leason, a family friend whom is the same age as my dad and spent all his life running miles and miles every week (he was one of the pacemakers in the first 4 min mile with Roger Banister!) can now hardly walk up the garden path and its only 15 years ago that I was running alongside him on training runs and had a job keeping up with him!
What I am trying to say is that people are different in there biological make up and were one guy can walk 8 miles to a favourite swim another of the same age might not be fit enough to walk 800 yards from the car!

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

Phil

I struggle with HG mate and I'm 44 - it's a ******* of a walk back up in the dark, rain and mud and poo!. Had to give it a miss when the back went but not too bad now.

How is Os fishing. Pm me

 

[Bluenose]

Phil can I ask how much bait you carry, as one alternative, for the chub at least, could to take one ball of cheesepaste (or maybe a specialist paste) and nowt else?

Cheesepaste caught me loads last winter on the Weaver, not that you need me to tell you that and not exactly the same ball game I appreciate, but maybe a single large bait approach could be an alternative. I use it for the convenience and weight/volume as you can lift it out the freezer and just go. A cricket ball size lasts ages.

Wrt the stretch you refer to mate, if you consider the time of the walk as fishing time 'lost' you could consider travelling a bit further to other stretches, even other rivers eg the dove? I admit that puts some extra financial strain on the fuel cost however sharing a lift would help. The dove banks are infinitely more do-able than what you describe mate!

 

[The bad one]

Eddie depends what I'm after, but in total and at most, it's never greater than a couple of pound of bait if it chub in winter. Strangely they have to be well fed to get the multiple catches I've had down the years. Single big baits don't get you those catches. They only catch you the resident fish or coupe of fish. To draw other fish you have to feed well through the session.
Many's the time I've had the resident fish(s) quite quickly, put some more bait in when its gone quite for an hour or so and caught another couple of fish within 15-30 minutes. Repeating it several time over through the session, finishing up with 6-10 fish. Think the best session I ever had yielded me 18 fish between about 3lb to 5 12.
John C was in the next peg when I had that catch.

The Sh*thole walk is the exception for hills, but as I said the flat walks to the most productive and relatively snag free swims are mainly at the lower end of the lengths I have access to.

The Dove is an option, but it's an hour and a half's drive, an hour of which is on the miserable congested M6. Just not for me when the Ribble is 40 minutes of mainly moderate to light traffic.

The Dane again is an option, but with the exception of two lengths I have access to, I'm back to long walks with bloody hills.

Matt oh the joys of being 40 and not having to think about these things, as they are in the way off future. You don't know how lucky you are

 

[bigdog78]

For me, so far it is eye sight issues. The glasses i wear to see things far away (well anything more than 5 feet away) are really messing up how i see things close-up. Without glasses i had obviously evolved to be a watch-maker or something - very good close up. Fishing wise, i am forever taking my glasses off to bait a hook, tie a knot etc, then putting them back on to see the float/bobbin. Complete pain in the jacksie. Before my eyes were young enough to adjust to the close-up stuff whilst wearing the glasses.

As regards general fitness, all i can say is that i have met plenty in their 70s who can still run around playing tennis and are very fit. It is possible if exercise is a major part of the lifestyle. Hope i can keep it going too.

Don't worry Chub i have a pimped out wheelbarrow that i'm going to convert for you!