Bank Side Etiquette – Part 2
Apr 10,2008 00:00
by
Stig
Welcome to the second instalment of Bank Side Etiquette, which covers further musings surrounding the do’s and don’ts when out on the bank.Civil Rights & Use Of
When we are out doing what we do by the lakes we choose to fish, we are not the sole users of the countryside, and anyone we should meet during our time there should be treated with a civil tongue and a cheery hello should they acknowledge your presence.
When fishing a certain Cheshire mere many moons ago, I used to fish sat just on the other side of the set of railings which separated the mere from the road and people used to come down park up and let their kids feed the ducks. This particular day I would be in my mid-teens and my fishing partner and I were having a really good day catching quality roach, perch, bream and hybrids. My father appeared at about 10am and watched us catch some fish. About ten minutes after his arrival two pensioner couples came to the railing next to where I was fishing and gave me a cheery hello I just turned my head and said hi. I was asked numerous questions by these people which at first I answered as best I could, but after about 3 or 4 questions being the wise-ass teenager I was, I gave them sarcastic replies to their questions, and all I could hear was my mate sniggering behind the bush that separated our two swims.
Eventually the pensioners went on their way, at which point I heard, “I will see you when you get home”. I turned round for the first time in ten or fifteen minutes and saw my dad stood there with a face like thunder. I thought nothing of it and carried on fishing. When I got home later that evening I walked in stinking of fish slime & stale ground bait with a big smile on my face as we had really bagged up.The smile was soon wiped off my face - My dad was sat in his chair with a look that told me I was in for it!
“Today you were the most ignorant I have ever seen a lad of your age be! You didn’t even have the decency to take your shades off when those people spoke to you, when you did turn round that was, and then you never even looked at them again - just sat there all smug with your back to them giving them sarcastic answers to perfectly sensible questions. Just because you’ve won a few junior matches you’re not Ivan Marks! And in any case, Ivan is a gentleman and would never treat anyone the way you treated those people today!”
“Sorry, I was just…” I was cut short by “If I ever see or hear of you acting like that again, I will take all you fishing gear to the tip and sell your gun.”
When fishing there are other people who use the countryside and the public footpaths of our fair nation. Contrary to the beliefs of many, they have just as much right to be there using the countryside for their enjoyment and it’s definitely a like it or lump it situation. In my honest opinion as we are all there and our paths will cross many times, I feel it is best to try and keep a good relationship with ramblers, wanderers and dog walkers. If we were all ignorant or threatening towards them, it wont take to many complaints to the land owner to have an effect - fishing leases can be lost as easily as that!
However, dog walkers throwing sticks or balls into the water for their dogs to fetch is wrong, as if we are to treat them with courtesy, they should afford us the same courtesy by keeping their dogs out of our swims and picking any mess their dogs leave behind - but it’s how you go about asking/telling them!
How it is or/& shouldn’t be
While serving our aprentiships, as mentioned previously, the importance of shutting gates and not damaging fences/hedges was drummed into us relentlessly. One summers afternoon quite a number of years ago we used to fish a small lake owned by a farmer in mid Cheshire. The water was some distance from the farm and we had called at the farm and paid our ticket money and drove to the lane where we parked the car closest to the pool. On arrival at the verge where we parked, we saw 3 cars parked there amongst about eighty cows and a gate left wide open .My pal and I immediately jumped out of the car and began herding the cattle back through the gateway after telling the lad driving to go back to the farm and get the farmer .By the time the errand had been run and our friend returned with the farmer we were coaxing the last ten or so cattle back through the gate. In all honesty it had been very simple once we forced the first few though the opening the majority of the herd followed, just leaving those final 10 or 11 munching the lush green grass by the roadside. The farmer then told us to wait there and disappeared over the fields towards the pool he returned about 15 minutes later along with the six anglers who were fishing the pool on arrival.
“Get in your vehicles and do not ever come back to fish here again” he told them. Once they had gone he couldn’t thank us enough and gave us our money back saying
“You lads saved me a whole lot of trouble and your money is no good here - none of those who have just left would own up to leaving the gate open - so they all had to go.”
The moment we saw those cattle on the road the thought of fishing did not enter our heads our only concern was to get them back in the field where they belonged .These days some of the chavs who call themselves anglers would simply unload their gear and walk to the water probably closing the gate so the cattle couldn’t get back at all.
Arrivals & checking in
Earlier I stated how I was taught to arrive at a water attracting as little attention as possible. in the past I have seen and heard carloads of anglers come racing up the drive of an estate on which I fish, all with wide bore exhausts, widows open and blasting some inane bass line, and all doing well over the driveway speed limit - Before they’ve even cast a line they’ve already broken every golden rule my father taught me about respecting land owners and other lake users!
They all arrive within seconds of each other onto the gravel car park and all screech to a halt Music blaring ‘boom, boom, boom’ & spraying the cars already parked there with stones and gravel . They then vacate their vehicles but leave the doors open with the same boom boom boom blasting over the lake and fields. They then begin to unload the cars while shouting to each other across the car park, with every other word a foul-mouthed expletive.
This sort of behaviour may be looked upon as cool on the thug ridden streets of some of our Cities and major towns - but carry on with this behaviour on the banks of a lilly fringed lake, or on a sleepy country estate in the middle of rural England, and it is NOT in any way, shape or form… ‘cool!’
After their rave style arrival to the water, they troop half way up the lake passing numerous empty swims in order to find one big enough to house a shanty town of bivvys for the planned nights social. Usually, the space they end up going for is wedged between the only other anglers on the lake at that time! They then produce a lump hammer and begin to pitch their bivvys hammering every peg in until it is 4 inches below the surface. After which the arguments as to who is fishing where ensue – more expletives! Once the pecking order has been established, the dreaded bite alarms come out – never before has there been such a weapon when in the wrong hands! Any anglers unfortunate enough to be on the lake, along with those who happen to be within a mile radius, are then subjected to what could only be equated to a bunch two year olds trying to play an electric keyboard - on full volume, of course.
All this continues without a thought for the anglers either side of them. Then more noise while chairs are dragged out of bivvys and erected in some sort of circle. At last however, everything goes quiet and you think to yourself that they have finally settled down. Only then do you hear the ‘pssspp…pssssp…pssssp’ as they begin to crack open 24 pack of Stella.
You’re going to be in for a long, not to mention noisy, night.
Before I get on my soap box I would like to stress to the reader that I am in no way a non drinker and enjoy a few beers now and then but the consumption of alcohol has never had any real significance to me. However, in my honest opinion, drinking pints of beer is a pastime which is really meant to be conducted in a pub or on a summers evening on a patio while enjoying a barbecue with friends. If you cant get by without having to drink copious amounts of alcohol on the bank, then the A.A. you need to be a member of is not an Angling Association!
I see nothing wrong with a can or two on your own as you settle down for the night in your bivvy as long as there are no rules in place banning the consumption of alcohol while on the banks of the water you are fishing, but for gods sake, give a thought to those around you.
Space invaders
There is nothing worse than being the only angler on a lake, and then someone turns up and jumps right in the next swim, and without even saying a word, makes no end of noise whilst setting up. All that upheaval is then followed by a big bucket of spod mix coming out as he/she decides the lake would look far nicer with another island created in the far bank margin. Then follows all the swishing and cursing as inexperience reveals its latest apprentice - Just as much ends up on your bivvy as it does in the lake.
Early doors/gates
Driving onto the site and having 2 of your passengers leap out long before you reach the car park with a few bait buckets and place them in the swims you wish to fish is one of the most frowned upon swim hijacking tactics used in the current angling world.
A few members recount recent tales;
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“I managed to get out fishing last week for the first time in a while, what with work, the missus and the little one. I arrived at the lake to find it empty of anglers, so first things first I baited the snags up and then went and fished the other end of the lake, popping back every so often to check on my baited area. I started seeing signs of fish around lunchtime, so moved all my kit down to the snag. By about 4pm I was positive that fish were on it when along comes some young lad with a bucket of bait. Had a quick hello, and then he went off to throw some bait in further up the pit. He sneaked back past me a little while later and hid in the next peg down and started firing bait into the snag that I was fishing. 3 bow waves shot up the lake from my baited area and when I said something he just moved down to the next peg and carried on the same. I would never dream of doing this to a fellow angler”
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“Turned up at the lake on the Friday for a quick recce before I fished on the Saturday, had a look round and spotted a few fish between two island's so I decided I’d turn up 30 mins before it opened in the morning and try and get in the swim nearest to the island’s. got to the lake early and was the 1st there, been there about 10 min's when a van pull's up behind me and 2 lad's get out, had a natter with them before it opened. bailiff turn's up and un-lock's the gate so we drive in as I was loading my gear onto the barrow the 2 lad's past me and started having a look around. With my gear loaded up I set off around the lake to the swim I fancied, as I got nearer to the swim I could see the 2 lad's pointing and talking"ok mate we're just discussing where we are gunna put our bait's".I told them in my best French that they weren't having this swim as I had 1st choice as I was at the water 1st,i then explained about carp etiquette and they walked off mumbling. I was furious at the cheek of them,fair enough we never discussed which swim we fancied but as I was at the water 1st I thought the onus was on them to ask me....!”
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All it takes a little bit of communication while waiting in the queue to avoid situation like the above ever happening. Whoever is first in the queue has the choice of swim - its first come first served and to the best of my knowledge always has been . Putting a bait bucket in a swim to reserve it for your mate who may be coming down later or even the following day is a definite NO, NO.
Civil Partnerships
We are not the only users of the countryside and do not have a divine right to be the sole users of it. I recently heard of a female dog walker threatened with a stainless steel bank stick for allowing her dog to be off the lead. The dog merely stood at the waters edge looking longingly at the ducks on the water and yelped a little out of excitement. The angler shot out of his chair grabbing the bank stick and stood there pointing it in the poor woman’s face while reeling off a number of expletives as to what he would do to the animal if it put one paw in his swim. The really sad part is that the person wielding the bank stick was only about 15 years old, and was sat in a litter strewn swim - all of which I am reliably informed was his own.
Bivvy £200, Rods £300, Stainless steel bank stick for threatening women £9.99 - The look on his face when her two 6ft 4inch sons came round the corner… Priceless.
Fishing used to be a great leveller no matter what you did for a living. No matter if tackle cost thousands of pounds or was straight from a car boot sale, once you were on the bank you were all the same - just a working man/woman getting out from the rat race for a day or two and chilling out doing some fishing. Long gone for most are the days when you worked your way up through the Gudgeon, roach and perch until you were skilled enough to handle the heart stopping runs,dives and all round deviousness of the fabled King Carp.
Morally Bankrupt
The Chav angler is now amongst us and what’s more, they want fish at any cost. What has happened to the old angling community where we helped each other out and looked after the cherished waters we fished? No one I class as a friend would dream of leaving a scrap of litter - never mind the discarded crates of empty beer cans that I find on my walks around certain waters.
Much of carp fishing, and angling generally, has become a victim of the ‘I want it now’ and ‘rules were made for breaking’ society we live in. Many think that by fishing in gangs they gain respect. They are kidding themselves - Fear is fear, not respect. Respect is earned and it’s a damn hard job to work your way upwards and onwards to that fabled land platform known as.. ‘Having the respect of your peers.’
My dad, god rest his soul, was a very strict task master regarding country pursuits, as were the fathers of many of my childhood friends. However, they taught us well and left us a legacy which we have since passed on to our own kids, and in time, I trust they will do the same to theirs!
I have been playing this fishing game since I could first walk and hold a rod, so with over 30 years of days, weeks and weekends on the banks, I’ve seen many sorrowful occurrences. Luckily, these have been equally balanced by the number of positive, funny, or captivating incidents I have also witnessed over the years. My intention with this piece was not to rant, more to try and show a mindset which sadly appears lacking in many who are currently picking up a rod in pursuit of our fine quarry – and if anything contained here makes just one person stop and think, then it’s been well worth the time taken to write down a few thoughts. I could ramble on hours, days, even weeks, but will save the rest for another day, or who knows, maybe a book – it seems to be the in thing:-)
Thanks, Dad. Of all the things you taught me about fishing, the most important was TO DO IT RIGHT!
Tight lines my friends…
Stig.
Piscator Non Solum Piscatur – There’s More to Fishing than Catching Fish.
Thanks to the few who allowed me to use snippets of their experiences in the writing of this article
Copyright 2008.
Northwestcarp.co.uk