Gone fishing.....

Mum has gone dancing and Dad has gone fishing and they’re not coming back.... but that’s ok..... we’ve all danced with Mum and we’ve all been been fishing with Dad.

Sorry Mum, but dancing ain’t really my thing... but being in Mum’s company whether dancing or not, usually meant having a right laugh! But when it came to fishing, me & Dad had some good times together. For hours on end every Sunday (during the coarse fishing season), we would sit quietly and fish.

Those times with Dad were a true father & son bonding experience on some deep level... there were plenty of times when I didn’t get on with Dad but fishing always brought us together. Very few words, if any, were ever spoken between us. Arriving at the ponds in Willaston at 5 o’clock in the morning was always so exciting.... watching the morning mist clear from the water and hearing the first gentle splash as a carp would break the surface. It is only in recent years that I’ve attributed my love for the outdoors & wildlife to those times with Dad... sitting outside in all weathers just watching & wishing for that orange float to lie flat and then disappear! Sit in one place for hours, be still & quiet, and wildlife will come to you.

Dad would wake me up at about 4am and make me coffee. Our packed butties would be ready in the fridge. Hardly a word spoken over breakfast, during the drive, the walk over the fields, sat opposite each other at the pond, the walk back to the car and the drive home.... the silence only broken with the occasional mutter of a perch, roach or that elusive tench. Few words but many memories.

Back home Mum would ask how we got on, but to be honest I think she was as much interested in our catch as we were in who showed up in The Rovers Return!

Once home I would go off cycling and then go out with me mates, Dad back to the shop and doing his accounts in his chair in the front room. “When are you going to find a job and what have you done today?” If he was in I would try to be out. But come Sunday the rest of the week didn’t matter. Maybe a new float (sometimes homemade from bird feathers), a quick read through Mr Crabtree, a fresh tub of maggots bought the day before from Johnny Parkes in New Ferry, alarm clock set and the promise of instant coffee before it got light and we were there, ready to strike at that vanishing float.... members of the Port Sunlight Angling Club, happy to be together.

I can’t remember at what age I started fishing with Dad (very young) but I must have been about 23 yrs old (1985) when we last fished together. I had begun to question why I was catching fish towards the end of my fishing career and so started to fish without any bait on my hook. I would sit out of sight from Dad and just watch & listen to the wildlife. Many years later I told him what I used to do, he had a puzzled look on his face.... I wish I had never mentioned it to him.

But those days together, endlessly staring at our floats (with the odd snooze now and then!) and the occasional fish worth getting the weighing scales out for, are days that belonged to just me and my Dad. I’m so pleased to have found a couple of photos from those happy days.

Dave on holiday with Dad
River Swale, North Yorkshire (1976?)

Dave on holiday with Dad
River Swale, North Yorkshire (1976?)

Anne with Rob & Keith (date & place please)

Dave, I think Ellesmere (1976?)

A keep net full of perch!
Thirlmere, Lake District (1973?)

Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W. H. Davies (1871 - 1940)


Why not take five finutes from your day and feed the fish on this blog!