DES TAYLOR “Where are the all-rounders?”
Are anglers too settled into comfort zones?
I’VE always been an all-round angler, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be fishing for chub one day and trout or pike the next.
That does happen sometimes but, generally speaking, I tend to concentrate on a particular species for a few seasons until I’ve learned the best ways to catch it. Then I move on, adding my freshly-acquired skills to the memory bank.
In my time I’ve been asked to give talks to the National Aguilla Club, the Pike Anglers Club, the Barbel Society, the Tenchfishers, the Carp Society and the Perchfishers, not forgetting sea angling clubs and those who specialise in matchfishing.
But true all-rounders seem to be a dying breed. I’ve asked myself why, and concluded that, unlike a lot of others, I’m prepared to take myself out of my comfort zone. Prepared is indeed the word, because having so many items of tackle and bait to get ready, and venues to organise – all at the same time – takes some doing.
Most anglers who specialise in just one branch of the sport have their gear set up in a corner of the house or garage, and all they need do is grab it and go.
Their preparation consists of buying a bit of bait and, in the case of trout and lure anglers, not even that!
I admit that sometimes, when I’m sorting out my tackle ahead of a long trip, I wish I had only one set to get ready. Instead, especially at this time of year, in a single week I can be out at sea one day, casting a fly for trout the next, or perhaps barbel fishing on the Severn.
Often I’ll be fishing a venue I know very little about, using tactics I’ve seldom if ever come across before, but I’m always learning something new.
I suppose, to be an all-rounder like me, you need to have a low boredom threshold, because however much I’m enjoying myself doing one thing to catch fish, before long I’m wanting to do something else and chase new challenges.
At one point I grew bored to death staring at drop-back bobbins while winter fishing for pike, and after that I never really fished for them for about 10 years, preferring to spend my winters targeting other species.
Then, a couple of years ago, I went back to piking in the cold months and I was as excited as a little kid again. Same old bobbins, but I had the buzz back, and that’s what I need in my angling.
Some, indeed most anglers, can fish for the same couple of species on the same type of venue all their life and never get fed up with it. I respect that, but it’s not for me.
I suppose things are different for young people these days, much different to what this old fart has been used to.
The main thing is that angling is prospering in these changing times, and long may that continue to be the case.