Not Gone Fishing
This weekend included a stunningly beautiful Saturday. We took the dogs for a walk, then got hot drinks for ourselves, at Alyn Waters Country Park. I’ve included a glimpse of the River Alyn for you.
Not far from where I took this photo, we walked past a man who was fishing.
Growing up on the USA’s Gulf Coast, my family liked to go fishing and crabbing. Each state in the USA issues its own licenses for fishing. Back then, a fishing license valid for a year didn’t cost too much. Some types of fishing didn’t require a license at all. If you were fishing off the seawall in Mississippi with a cane pole rather than a rod and reel, you didn’t need a license. Poor people could fish that way to get a little more protein to eat for practically no cost.
When someone was “gone fishing,” it might be for the pleasure of a long quiet time outdoors with no special care about whether or not they caught any fish. It might be to catch dinner. It might be for sport. Going fishing was commonplace, easy to do.
It isn’t so easy here in the UK. First, you need a rod fishing license if you want to fish with a rod for salmon, trout, freshwater fish, smelt or eel in
England (except the River Tweed)
Wales
the Border Esk region, including the parts of the river that are in Scotland
You need to not only have the license, but be able to show it on demand. Otherwise, you can be fined £2500.
You also almost always need a license from the specific club, group or landowner that holds fishing rights at the patch of waterway or coastline where you want to fish. It seems like practically every square inch where you might fish belongs to somebody who can demand a fee from you. If you stand one meter to the wrong side of an invisible line between licensing entities, you’re breaking the rules.
You have to make sure to buy the right license(s) for the fishing you want to do and the specific place(s) you want to do it. The fisherman we saw had to buy membership in the Bradley Fishing Club. If he moved too far up or down the river, he would need to get it from somebody else.
All of that is just for recreational fishing. I don’t even want to think about commercial fishing rules.
In other words, going fishing isn’t nearly as simple here as it was where I grew up. Maybe some people find it relaxing. There are anglers here. But so much bureaucracy tends to wind me up and prevent me from relaxing.
My wife doesn’t ever want to go fishing anyway. She doesn’t want to hurt any fish.
On top of that, every river in England is polluted and so are a good many rivers elsewhere in the UK. I wouldn’t want to eat fish I caught here and wouldn’t be keen about contact with the water. (You may have seen news about this year’s Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the River Thames. Some of the Oxford crew got sick afterward even though they heeded warnings to stay out of the water, obsessively washed everything and showered themselves. The E. coli count in the river is very high due to sewage in it.)
So… for us, chill-out time and adventure time typically focuses around taking the dogs somewhere outdoors. It may be the grounds of a National Trust property, or a secure field for an off-lead romp, or a walking path.
This is Easter week so we’re going to do some of that. We’re around, just doing stuff with the dogs. It will probably interfere with my posting here.
We’re Not Gone Fishing but it will do.
Yes, just enjoying nature is enough for many of us. My son sent a video of his girls hunting Easter eggs on his dad's forested property in Washington state. He put up signs identifying landmarks like Hazelnut, Deer Platform, Small Folk Trail, and 1st grader Sophie could try to read them. They followed a mown trail through the woods, led by their Grandpa's dog, picking up eggs, candy, a book each, and a stuffed toy. It was a magical outing for them. I sit in my backyard this time of year and listen to the purple martins, white-winged doves, cardinals, mockingbirds, the occasional brown thrasher or Bewick's wren, and others preparing to raise families. Sorry the fishing rules are so onerous in England. But you have already discovered the joy of just being in nature. Happy Easter week!
I would not eat fish from polluted water if I knew about it. That’s the problem, though, with so much of our seafood coming from farming operations in other countries. Concentrations of fish or shellfish with their waste eliminated in crowded conditions, medications to control diseases resulting from the crowding, lack of oversight by authorities—disgusting! Of course, farmed seafood costs less than wild seafood, which is the reason the American shrimp industry is in decline. Personally, I would rather pay more to eat wholesome seafood from the ocean. You really do get what you pay for.