I will be fishing for carp, possibly wild carp with the same friends, at the same mist shrouded pool, same time, same rockets, beer and traditions as I always have done - in this ever busy world I'm so pleased it is the one constant in my life - it never changes and may that always be the case.
The only fly in the ointment are the fish! They may or may not want to say hello and be admired by us.........that's the fun of it, the expectation - will it be an ancient uncaught monster or a dry net! It doesn't matter. Just being there is enough.
I usually think of BB (DJ Watkins-Pitchford) at the start of the coarse fishing season (especially when carp are the quarry) and will raise my pint glass at some stage to him in appreciation. That's him pictured below with his carp rod and reel - BB was the grandfather of carp fishing in this country.......not as hard nosed as those who came after him, he liked to smell the roses along the way. It was reading his 1950 masterpiece "Confessions of a Carp Fisher" in the school library that got me really hooked on Carp - I doubt the book is still there, but I have BB, Bernard Venables and Oliver Kite all to thank for sending me on a journey of discovery that still excites me today.
If you, like me, will be doing something similar for the glorious sixteenth then I hope your dreams come true and the sun shines on you and that your cane rod creaks with happiness.
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