The Magic is in the Words

[otter]

Countless books have been written about angling and more come of the press each year, technical works, life stories, the musings of fine and not so fine anglers.  Most will never win a literary award, some not even a literacy award but every now and again a gem appears, the stars aligning to produce a great writer and a great angler. But leaving aside the books, does the everyday words we use to converse reflect the magic in angling ?

With the advent of the internet the sheer volume of information available to an angler is overwhelming, much of it technical and sadly turning, what I consider to be one of life's great passions into a sport. Stock fisheries are a testament to this and have bred a very different kind of angler and a very different vocabulary. Fast trackers is probably the best way to describe many modern anglers as they learn a myriad of techniques at an all too fast a pace. Life is too short to learn all we would desire but life is too long to learn everything at once. That beginners regularly  catch a trout of six pound weight on their first outing is the saddest thing of all, it should take a lifetime and maybe two lifetimes to catch such a trout in the British Isles.

Angling vocabulary, the words we use to describe both the technical and the non-technical is at serious risk. The magic has been somehow lost along the way, without that magic angling will become simply a sport and maybe then we should swap our rods for golf clubs.

The great books, the ones that stand the test of time have one common trait, they are inspirational. They take the reader to some wonderful places and invite the reader to fish alongside the author as each page is turned. With every turn of phrase, within the vocabulary that is ours, there is magic.
Maybe I have become just another grumpy old man, wishing to read real language, converse in language that still maintains colour and not the cold grey text speak, jazzed up with lazy emotions and smileys.

One of the great books of the twentieth century was "A Man May Fish" by Kingsmill Moore.  The chapters on his relationship with Jamesie his Corrib boatman  are legendary and the book an inspiration for any angler that drifted a team of wet flys in pursuit of Sea Trout on a lough.  It is unusual that a man of Law, whose daily life revolved around the cold language of court could turn his pen and produce such a literary work. For me, he wrote one of the most descriptively perfect lines ever to grace an angling book when describing Jamesie's uncanny ability to spot a feeding trout in the crest of a wave at great distance. "He had eyes like a travelling rat."  How could you avoid being inspired by such words.

When I first started Nymphing for trout I read about a style called the New Zealand style, isn't that a wonderful name for anyone beginning a journey. It conjures up the image of something special, from that faraway place where trout grow big and the streams run clear.  This method comes from the land of the Maori, a land of warriors, the land of the Hakka.
What will my children read about, 'The Duo' and 'The Trio',   cold and unimaginative.  'The Washing Line', simply beggar's belief and I would happily drown the man that invented that name and sink his Washing line with him, no matter how good a method it is.

Is it beyond the wit of modern angler's  or is it simply that such inanimate terminology is indeed in harmony with the faceless ones that would turn our passion into a commercial circus. Indeed, maybe many modern anglers are oblivious of the incessant exploitation and manipulation and are oblivious of the distinction between a sport and a passion.

New Zealand style stood me in good stead for many seasons and yes I fished more than one nymph under the dry and steadfastly refused to use the modern names. I succumbed slightly at the term Klink and Dink, it has a certain ring to it, a little bit of comic character. The magic was out there and eventually I found it in the writings of Mike Connor. 'Tactical Teams', wonderful description, not simply a chuck it out there name. The magic of such a description is that it personalises the approach, includes the angler, requiring a thinking angler to play his part. This is not the picture of some automaton casting out a Duo or Trio onto a once visually beautiful riffle that has been segmented into a grid.


If fishing in wild places for wild fish is not possible for every angler then please, at least let us keep some magic in the words we use.

While there is magic there is still hope !!!!!!



The Magic is in the words

Lifelong pleasure, comes to he
who gathers slowly, fishing ways,
hurries not, enjoys his days,
upon the stream, the lough the burn.

Thought into every cast, every twist and turn,
he hears the stream, the curlews call.
Sees dipping caddis, dancing olives on the wing,
a minute midge emerging from the depths,
inhales it all with drawing breath.
Under every stone, in every word, is magic found,
by he, who seeks more than bending rod
this timeless passion kept alive.

Look down not upon where others endure,
the concrete bowls, the man made holes,
the washing lines, the tattered fins,
the booby drifting deep amidst the debris of mans indulgence.

Keep the magic in the words, for children now,
will soon be men.
Sensing magic  in the words, desiring more than fast food pleasure,
will lift the cataracts from others eyes.

Will return the streams to nature's way.
And with the dawn, an angler can cast his line,
upon natural water,  to natural trout,
where nature intended them to dine, to spawn
the next generations, that can share a passion,
that so luckily is yours and mine.

[Bobfly]

Very well said. Super sentiments.

We live in a world of the instant fix, and need time spent on thought and some faraway gaze.

[Moggie]

Thanks Otter, I really enjoyed that and I do agree that the writings of Kingsmill Moore are a real joy.
I don't envy many people but I must say that I do envy those with a good vocabulary. I'm a good listener and love to hear people expressing themselves using the minimum of words without the usual
" you know " or " like " . I think it's for that reason that I enjoy watching some of the period dramas on TV. They are not all up to the mark but those that are, are as you say, Magic.

Moggie