I don't really know how I ended up helping out at the pub that night. I didn't really want to do it but Sid, the landlord, was an old friend and had conned me into it, just standing in for him for an evening, while he and his wife went on the family rounds, delivering Christmas presents. I guess I'm that soft sort of mug who can get talked into anything. Janice, the regular barmaid was tending the saloon bar and I could call on her for any help I might need. Not that I was likely to need any. So there I was, the night before Christmas Eve, polishing glasses in what has to be the dullest pub in Britain, when I could have been home with my lovely Angela, feet up and watching the telly. Not that it was hard work, the place was almost deserted, most of the local custom being in the Swan over the road. It seems that most people around here prefer to be deafened by thumping rave music noise, rather than have a quiet drink in pleasant surroundings. In fact, the only customers we had in the public bar on this particular evening were three young fellows and an old tramp. Sid, would probably have never let him in the first place but, as I said, I'm a bit of a soft touch. The old boy sat muttering to himself, his dirty overcoat wrapped tightly around him, held fast with a length of string, watching the younger men who were currently deriding the statement on the brass plaque affixed to the glass case above the bar.

One's life is not the future, it is the past, and as one gets older one tends to realise this more and more.

     
Some may disagree, but my concept of life is that it is a collection of memories; some wonderful, some painful, and some best forgotten. That is why I think that life gets faster as one ages, for when one is young a year is full of hundreds of recollections. New people, new experiences, and relived experiences that are still so pleasurable that they are retained within the mind to be oft recalled. But when one is old, much of life has been so often repeated that it is no longer of sufficient interest to be kept within the memory, and so, when looking back over the previous year, there are but few things remembered and those few memories are the whole year. Every year the memories decrease and thus the year has passed quicker.

      

Last time we went through choice and preparation of our swim and selection of suitable tackle so now it’s time to go fishing.

It’s three-thirty in the morning and we just know that nothing will be caught before six but we just have to be there at this most perfect time of day. The swim was dragged and baited last night and fish were seen rolling in the vicinity, heightening our anticipation of the trip. There is no rush – have a coffee, appreciate the dawn and watch for rolling fish.

Image caption: Autumnal bag of sevens and eights from a seriously hard water.

When you next visit your local tench water, have a good look amongst the serried ranks of bivouacs and matching rods and in a quiet corner you may see a lonely, hunched figure crouching over a single rod - this could well be me!
In the high-pressure world of modern specialist angling, tench fishing is one area in which I believe you can retain some of the more traditional techniques and still be very competitive and successful. This is not retro-angling á la Chris Yates but an adaptation of existing methods to create an efficient and deadly way of catching big tench on a regular basis.

Image Caption: 9lb 6oz from a prolific lake - best of a bag of 18 fish.

What is it about perch? One day they are in the swim, the next they are gone. You bag a few one day, and then are so perplexed, even disappointed, after a night sleepless with excitement, when you return with great anticipation….

Angling Unity Update

May 2008

Background

For the past year, the main national membership organisations representing anglers have been planning to unify into one body to represent all coarse, sea and game anglers. This is a move which has been long awaited and tried unsuccessfully in the past. We aim to make it a reality at last. It is widely known that there are millions of anglers in the UK, but they have never had a single professional, high-profile and well-funded organisation to represent their views....