Ed 26 Scribbling

 

 Back in Ed 25 I wrote some guff mainly about angling writing prior to the realm of all-pervading social [some say antisocial] media; back then modesty was much more important than self- gratification. I used a photo which was a glimpse a couple of the things I write my habitual scrawlings into, but gave no explanation otherwise. To put that right and expand upon it, here is a new photo!

 The original depicted my fishing log, religiously completed each time I go fishing, lying on top of that was my fishing notebook. The first part of that notebook is a list of fisheries, one per page, with their addresses, phone numbers, and post codes for the sat-nav. On the reverse of each page I record the better captures’ weights and dates, giving me a record of PBs per each fishery. The second part of the book holds a list of my rods and their line weight ratings, then a list of reels and spools, also detailing line types and weights, with the lines’ date of purchase. The remainder of the notebook is a miscellany: such and such’s top twelve favourite flies, quotations, scraps of song lyrics, poems, fly colours charts, even fish recipes, knot drawings, leader building recipes; general scribblings that I jot down when I come across something interesting. The log is a custom volume, rather grand, a present from my daughter, and holds date, fishery, weather, results, successful methods and fly patterns, with comments and so on. At the end of each year I calculate and record my rod average, overall weight and numbers.

 In the new photo I’ve included the log’s predecessors; two full notebooks and much more homespun. Also there is a much smaller notebook which was my log back in the day when I did competitive coarse fishing, prior to being bitten by the flyfishing bug! You can also see two black notebooks, my fly-tying recipes with my hand-drawn illustrations and some photos, with some other people’s recipes that I particularly like, with tips and hacks.

 What a lot of frantic scribbling! Not shown is an 85,000+ word  manuscript about my life entwined in fishing. It needs some re-working in places, but the hope is to get it published one day. In addition, I also maintain the fishing blogs. But you know that, you’re reading one.

 Why? Good question. I suppose the answer is “information”. It all means something pertinent to me, a focus for my thoughts. The log contains all sorts of information [moon state, weather, barometric pressure, places and results] but I can’t really say it allows me to predict how a trip might actually turn out. I happen to like notes about my fishing, and others’, a source of data which might help germinate ideas. Then again, maybe I’m a nerd who just likes to write reminders? That said, before I retired I kept a day-per-page A4 desk diary for the forty years of my career. In business, I found it invaluable: a record of times, meetings, deadlines, itineraries, schedules, expenses, names and places. I kept the whole stack for six years after I retired, then had them incinerated.

 Whatever; I just enjoy writing, … I hope you like reading it.

The previous photo