“Coming out of lockdown is going to be massively liberating”
IT’S BEEN a long time arriving, but the angling world is finally coming off the leash and back to greater freedom.
And it’s an exciting feeling! The change in mood feels like we could be moving from RE lesson to summer festival in the foreseeable future.
Coming out of lockdown is going to be massively liberating. The only quandary with this new freedom is how on Earth to use it, once the reins are loosened.
For anyone with broad tastes, it’ll be hard to know where to start. So what’s top of the agenda? Get back to what you know, or try something totally new?
The number one priority for me will be to renew friendships, by which I mean real world interactions by water, as opposed to digital meetings. I’ve seen enough bookshelves and terrible haircuts for a lifetime!
The new trout fishing season will feel more special than ever this year, for starters. I’d be hard-pressed to choose between hooking into turbo-charged rainbow trout on a reservoir or sneaking about on a tiny stream for perfect little brownies, so the sensible answer is to do both!
Besides my angling connections, though, I also want to take more non-fishing converts among my oldest friends on to the water this year. Which leads me to the sea, specifically, where they can enjoy beautiful locations and very simple tackle and tactics.
For a Devon boy, it’s been a long, cold absence from the salt. You’d struggle to exhaust the array of weird, colourful and startling species out there in a lifetime. Wrasse and gurnards will both be on my summer list – species that are not only phenomenally colourful but very catchable on lures.
As for bigger challenges, I always like to have one or two more spectacular ideas to try. As often as not success won’t be easy, but it’s good to dream and stretch your limits. A catfish on beefed-up float tackle or even a fly rod would be incredible fun. Then again, I’d love to fool a large carp on a natural venue in similar fashion, at close quarters and without a bite alarm in sight.
There’s no shortage of possibilities, then, but the only slightly daunting prospect could be the vast crowds at every public bit of water!
Life won’t be completely normal or restriction-free even by June, and if international travel remains off limits, local beauty spots could quickly turn into a scrum once again.
In which case, I have no problem with longer walks or even donning waders to get away from the crowds. After all, for me it’s not so much the size of the fish, but that feeling of being a big kid, a distant cast away from the modern world.
Let’s hope for a cheerful and less anxious summer, anyway, because we’ve all earned it.
“The only quandary with this new freedom is how on Earth to use it”