Click to play the video. Includes: It's important that anglers understand the difference between a passion and an obsession - Bait and rig revealed - The toilet habits of the kingfisher
In this week's video I share the need to know the difference between a passion and an obsession. This is true in every area of life, but especially so for us anglers. In fact I would say that it's crucial we not only understand that there is a difference but then to make sure we are firmly on the right side of the line. In a nutshell, passion is good, obsession bad. I would also say that just because someone fishes a lot, that in itself doesn't mean to say they are obsessed. It's all about what's going on in our mind. Anyway, what about the actual fishing this week, how did that go?
A small chub on the bank
Underneath the first photo in this week's blog, I wrote the words 'A small chub'. But is it small? Someone contacted me recently to say he had never caught a 3lb chub and the ones that I have been banking of late have all been monsters. So although there's nothing wrong in using words like 'small' we do have to understand that they are just relative to our own experiences. The moment we feel a chub, or any other fish for that matter, doesn't have the same value as another based on size alone, then it's time for some serious re-evaluation.
Barbel Stix does the business again
I continued with my Barbel Stix approach this week, fishing both Frankfurter Sausage and Undercover flavours. That's the latter that you can see in the photo above. I think confidence plays a massive part in angling and no more is that reflected than in bait choice. Although the canal has been tough, the only bait I've taken along has been Barbel Stix. If nothing else, I know that it has put a lot of big chub on the bank for me. Another thing is that I can confidently say it won't 'blow' as a bait. In the whole of this week I only saw one family group of anglers anywhere on the canal - and they went after an hour.
Another chub poses for the camera with yours truly
Whoever said 'time flies' wasn't joking - I can't believe it's the first of February today (as I publish this blog entry of course). I'm still on track for my fish-every-day-of-the-year target, although to highlight the title of this week's blog entry, there's no obsession involved but lots of passion. Of course, I'm not able to fish twenty-four hours of every single day, and that is reflected very much in this week's sessions. I averaged out at about three hours per outing. I can do four mornings and it's no more total fishing time than the angler who does a twelve-hour session.
In the net and ready to go back
All the fish caught this week were my target species, apart from one bream in the final visit. However, when the rod pulled out of the rest and the fish took off like an express train, in the split second before I lifted into it, I was convinced that I had hooked into a carp. Imagine my surprise when I found myself banking a small bream, one that definitely punched above its weight for sure. As it happened, it was the only fish I caught that morning so avoided a blank. It's always nice when your target species hits the back of the net, but hardly an issue when something else obliges instead.
The bream that I thought was a carp
And finally (I like to end my blog with that as no doubt you've realised), for those who do access my website (www.anglingdiary.com) as a means of connecting with my weekly entry, you will have realised by now that it hasn't been updated for a couple of weeks. The people that host the site did some internal work, which meant that for the first time in almost 11 years, I was unable to get on there. Basically they weren't able to help, so I just had to draw a line under it. It's no issue though, I was just using the site as a place to host the blogs. They're still out there, and as from now will just be on Blogger as opposed to the site as well (Published February 1 2014)
Blog published every Saturday, this is number 551.
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