As any of you who may have read my previous article will realise, you shouldn’t let the name fool you, Charlie is short for Charlotte. I’m one of those rare lady anglers that I’m sure you have all heard about – a bit like the mythical monster carp in most lakes and canals that every one talks about but no one has ever actually caught or seen.
Since writing my first article exploring why women don’t fish I was asked by the editor to provide a photo. So I decided to spend a few hours down at the canal – my local arm of the Grand Union – to get some action pictures. The idea was for me to have a photo holding something I’d caught or in ‘mid catch’, you know the sort of thing. However, it didn’t quite go to plan as I had my very first blank. It was the first time I had gone out and caught absolutely nothing.
I hadn’t before realised that sometimes the fish just aren’t in the mood to eat. Having a healthy appetite myself I can’t really imagine being put off by a bit of rain or a cold wind. I would have thought that animals in the wild would be even more inclined to take food when it was there. I sat on the bank imagining them skulking about on the bottom like moody teenagers not wanting to leave their rooms.
I did discover that there is quite a lot of camaraderie during such low spots. Anglers who are usually happy to sit quietly not speaking to another soul, feel compelled to chat to other anglers - just to make sure that no one else is catching either. It certainly makes you feel better to know that you aren’t alone and that it’s the fish and not you.
Sitting
quietly on the canal bank, I did however have the chance to really take
notice of the wildlife around me.
A heron standing still as a statue on the opposite bank and then taking
off - creating an enormous shadow on the canal as it flew past. I wondered
if the heron was having the same bad luck as us?
And there were robins twittering in the hedges behind us hoping that
if we gave up early they would be offered the remaining maggots to feed
their growing brood.
When
we did finally give up and head for home, we put our last few remaining
maggots in the canal and left. I knew that the minute we turned our
backs the fish would be happily gobbling up our leftovers!
There’s always the next time and as we are soon off to the Norfolk
Broads for a week - hopefully I’ll get the pictures I want.
Charlie Watts