Martyn White | Thursday, 19 December 2024
I didn't fish this week what with getting ready for Christmas and the like, Dave was out on the Bay on Tuesday and the fishing continues to be odd with little activity on the bigger stuff, but at least the numbers are dropping off so it seems that the fish are moving away to spawn roughly on time. That means it's time to leave the seabass till late January and target cold carp in the meantime.
What I did do was climb a mountain. Not super high, just 996m but it was a tough one with a very steep initial climb. Did I enjoy it? No. Was it a great day? Yes. I never "enjoy" climbing a mountain, but it's excellent to get to the top and it's excellent to be finished. I was thinking about how that's similar to how I feel about fishing.
I like fishing more than climbing mountains -I love fishing obviously, but I'm not sure I always enjoy it. For me, the good bit is when it's a bit frustrating, or challenging and difficult and you work it out. Easy fishing doesn't appeal to me much anymore, I've caught plenty of fish in my career and quickly get bored if it's not challenging. When I started climbimg mountain, I went on a bit of a peak collecting spree but after a while discovered I like a challenging climb, with a nice view at the top and hopefully during the climb.
In fishing, I'm no longer interested in competition, application of arbitrary limitations and relentless efficiency for percentage based success(I'm not even sure that competition is still really driving progress in methods, especially with stockie bashing, but that's a different issue). I went through a spell of only being interested in peaks over 1000m, arbitrary nonsense that cut out a huge number of very nice, enjoyable climbs.
What's the point in this FP? Not sure, but I think there's something in there about what I, maybe we, get from our fishing and motivation. Anyway, I'll leave it here and wish you all happy holidays.