Weird things you catch...
From the stereotypical old boot to the most random of discoveries, the mind boggles at items that turn up in our fisheries, says Dom Garnett
WHETHER it’s a soggy carrier bag or discarded body parts, anglers don’t half come across some weird objects across the nation’s fisheries.
In fact, some of us do a grand service in ridding rivers and canals of all kinds of bizarre crud.
It’s a curious topic, then, but there is also a serious point here. Unfortunately, a minority of anglers tarnish the sport by littering, but surely the rest of us could be part of the solution?
That’s the aim of the Angling Trust’s current ‘Take 5’ campaign, anyway. It might seem a small gesture, but if we all just picked up five bits of litter every session, literally truckloads of rubbish would disappear every season.
Granted, it might not be your trash, but it certainly feels good to leave your swim tidier than when you arrived. As for my own ultimate ‘Take’, the following specimens would all feature in my list of most (un)wanted!
1 A DISTURBING KID’S DOLL
These things are always horrible in that 1980s video nasty kind of way. The one I caught last month was so hideously discoloured, you half expected it to come with a collection of voodoo-style pins.
2 BEVERLY HILLS COP II ON VHS VIDEO CASSETTE
Talking of video nasties, I caught this fairly dreadful Eddie Murphy movie on the Somerset Levels one winter. Discarded items can travel many miles in floods. It still had a rental sticker on it, and a mate dared me to return it to the village shop. I imagine it must have built up quite a substantial fine since 1987. This sequel wasn’t a patch on the original.
3 A WWII ERA MORSE CODE RADIO A fascinating find, I came across
this eerily well-preserved item while helping a club net some local ponds. The place had previous form, too, as it once held a missing car and the bodies of two drowned joyriders.
4 A SPECIMEN UMBRELLA
Hooked on Chew Valley Lake, it was memorable because it felt like a big, lazy pike for all of about five seconds. About the only entertainment on a very slow day, it has to be said.
5 A DISCARDED PROPHYLACTIC
I can’t be the only one to hook ‘something for the weekend’ from the local canal. Thank God for those extra-long forceps, is all I can say.