IT’S IMPORTANT TO BE AVERAGE

“That new ‘thing’ of mine was trotting deadbaits”

BACK in November I found a new thing. Technically it’s not really new, but it’s new to me. That made it exciting, both from a discovery point of view, but more importantly from an enjoyment angle.

That ‘thing’ was trotting deadbaits for pike. Think chub fishing with a stick float on the river, but substitute the little float for a big one, the 6g olivette for a 35g version, and the double red maggot combo for a six-inch dead fish. Now, I am far from a skilled pike angler. In fact, I am particularly average at it, but I enjoy it immensely. I’m not trying to catch big fish. I’m not being filmed, and I’m certainly not trying to catch monsters. I’m simply going fishing.

A lot of my fishing is done in front of a camera. Or in competition. Or in coaching. Not a whinge… merely a fact, and as such there’s a huge pressure to succeed. Winning and success is drilled into us from a young age, rightly so in certain spheres. There’s a consistent message that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

There’s also the ‘side hustle’ attitude that everything has to be promoted or monetised, so likes, shares and sponsorship deals are to the fore of many anglers’ minds. But mindset can so easily remove the innocent joy from our sport.

Make no mistake, I’m hugely competitive, but it’s been amazing to split the ‘job’ from the hobby. After all a hobby is defined as “a pursuit outside of one’s regular occupation, engaged in specifically for relaxation”. Turning every angling opportunity into a productivity race eventually reduces our hobby to another form of work, and that’s a great shame.

It’s wrasse time soon… and I’m looking forward to being decidedly average at that too.