I've been reading
Confessions of a Carp Fisher by the enigmatically named 'B.B.'. It begins with a discussion of the types of people who go after particular fish. (We've seen
comments on carp fishers and chub fishers already.) I'll quote a few of them here - he isn't equally polite about all of them. First, those who go after perch:
[T]he perch fisher [...] needs plenty of action and good bold bites - there is always something of the schoolboy about your blue-blooded perch fisher. The bite of the perch makes glad the heart of a boy - it is a determined, rather leisurely bite. Unlike the roach expert, the perch fisher will sometimes take his catch home and eat them and very good they are (so are roach for that matter, if you know how to cook them).
But, if perch fishers are boys at heart, those who specialise in pike are very much grown-ups:
[They are] a breezy, hardy, red-faced race of men, impervious to the wildest winter weather, fond of the ale house and jolly company. They too will eat what they catch. Successful pike fishers, are hearty rascals, full of exciting stories of battles with fabulous monsters. [...] [The pike fisher who uses live bait] is perhaps the hardiest of the tribe of Izaak. He fishes throughout the bitter winter day, sitting on his basket, or standing with up-turned coat collar, a trembling drop at the end of his nose.
And finally let's talk about bream fishers:
The latter I am told are rather coarse fellows who like to catch their fish by the stone; I suspect there is something of the fishmonger and poulterer about bream fishers. [...] [They] are usually big, flat-footed men, retired constables and railwaymen and sometimes barbers by profession, men of little imagination.
Men of little imagination? Harsh words. As it happens, my book on the different target species for coarse angling says that 'the bream is becoming more educated, demanding a greater sophistication in approach, bait, tackle, and techniques'. Takes a bit of imagination to catch them now!
'Fond of the ale house and jolly company...' [Image by Mike White [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.]
The Compleat Angler, by contrast, personifies the fish. Here is Walton on the Cub: 'The Chub, thought he eat well thus drest, yet as he is usually drest he does not: he is objected against..
ReplyDeleteThe Trout ...may justly said..to be a generous Fish: a Fish that is so like the Buck that he also has his seasons."
In that text the fish have as much character as the people fishing them, and this is something complex about fishing, the dance between fisherman and fish so that they turn into each other.
It is interest always to see how different practices are used to create social distinction. The pike fisher is described in more literary terms as hardy and battling monsters and therefore has more 'worth' than the bream fishers. I also find it interesting that a lack of imagination is linked with physical characteristics and professions
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