Time to start building the memories
Among the millions
of people who enjoy angling there are some for whom it becomes an obsession.
I am one such person and I may have told the story before about when the editor
of an angling magazine asked why do we do it, why do we like angling so much.
I wrote in to say that angling gives me so much pleasure and it was as simple
as that, because I owed it to myself to try to have as much pleasure as I could
in life or I would have wasted the one life that I have.
One reader sent in a letter saying: ‘‘I abhor Mr Neville’s headonistic
approach to life.’’ He added: ‘‘Does he not understand
that rather than persuing the pleasures of this world he should be busy preparing
himself to the next world?’’
He and I could hardly be more contempuous of each other because my long fishing
life has brought me so very many times when I thought I might die from a surfeit
of pleasure.
If you are of a temperament like me, you began to panic as you grow older because
the years fly by and you fear that you will never be able to spend enough time
seeking more knowledge about the sport.
I felt the need to find ways of spending more time fishing and less time at work,
for that is a four-letter word in my opinion.
My way was to put in just enough hours work to bring me just enough money to cover
the necessities of life. I spent as much times as possible at the waterside and
found ways of covering some of the fishing expenses.
I sold features and photographs to various publications and I sold artificial
flies that I had tied.
I taught fly tying and casting at night school and ran courses for the National
Park and a whole host of other things.
Now that I am getting old, I know that I was right to spend so much time on my
hobby.
What I am trying to say is this: build the memories. I have so many good memories
to fall back on. Memories of friends, venues and when I enjoyed triumphs in fishing.
Perhaps that is why there is hardly a single night that goes by without me having
dreams about angling.