“Got a great angling story to tell? Don’t let it slip the hook!”
SOMETIMES I wish I had a fiver for every great fishing story I’d heard. Meet any angler of many years and the likelihood will be that they have a netful. What a shame, therefore, that so many are lost forever.
Plenty of tales concern memorable fish won or lost – but just as many will bring a nostalgic sigh or hoots of laughter. Among those that stand out the most for me are times and places that now only exist in memory.
One especially rich source was an elderly gentleman I met during my research for the book Canal Fishing. From tales of fishing amid air raid sirens and warplanes, through to schoolboy days selling supplies to coachloads of match anglers, he was a living treasure trove. Other guys have incredible stories from world travels, or even armed conflict zones, and Nick Sawyer’s book Fishing on
the Frontline remains a favourite on my shelf.
However, the truth is that you don’t need to have broken a record or risked life and limb to share magical experiences. Every season without fail, I hear from anglers who aim to do exactly this in real or digital print, and my unfailing message is – go for it!
Even if it’s just for your own entertainment or posterity, such stories are a wonderful gift. Nor do you need to be academically gifted or have a publishing deal to give it a crack.
The one caveat to this is that a pint or two of sweat and toil are a basic requirement. As a bare minimum, you’ll also want someone to provide some honest feedback and constructive criticism.
I tend to warn friends that writing a full book is bit like having a baby, in that it takes at least nine months and there’s a lot of labour and a few tears at the end! Nor is it easy to sell fishing books in any huge volume these days, so profit should be your last motive.
My aim is not to put anyone off here, however, and like the baby of my clumsy analogy, it’s something you never regret.
For such a rich pastime such as ours, it’s a shame that so few of us take the plunge to write more than the odd tweet or Facebook update, because in the grand scheme of things these activities have all the longevity of a mayfly’s sex life.
Ironically, though, while fewer of us than ever seem willing to write more than a few sentences, there has never been a better time to be a storyteller.
Virtually everyone has a laptop, while digital publishing means anyone can start a blog or produce a book in digital format with time the only major cost. So, for anyone with the will and experience to do so, my message is simple – if you’ve got a great angling story to tell, don’t let it slip the hook!
“Digital publishing means anyone can start a blog or produce a book”