There was some minor consternation on Facebook
this morning. The Angling Times has produced a list “The Top 50 Most
Influential People In Fishing Right Now”. Matt Hayes (the famous TV angler) isn’t
happy because he comes in at fortieth place. He had a bit of a rant on
Facebook; if I was in his place I would have done so as well. Why did he score
so low? Basically he doesn’t get endless corporate sponsorship. Fishing these
days is big business. If you watch any TV show abut fishing these days they are
all sponsored by some bait or tackle manufacturer. These companies make the TV
shows, pay the anglers, and the money all comes from the massively overpriced
fishing tackle. It’s all about making money. The more cash you bring in for the
angling companies, the more they give you. On reflection I suppose that is true
of any job, isn’t it? But there’s the issue. For many, fishing is now paid
employment.
When I was a lad I paid
to going fishing out of my pocket money. I couldn’t begin to do that these
days. I’ve ranted on here before about the price of fishing tackle.
I have several friends
who go fishing and when they catch something impressive post phots onto social
media with #acmefishingcorporation because the Acme Fishing Corporation
(or whichever company) give them cheap bait in return for the publicity.
Matt Hayes hasn’t had a
new show on telly for over ten years. He is now talking about crowdfunding for
a new one. Perhaps that is the way forward?
And I saw that this
weekend was the Great British Birdwatch in which people sit in
their gardens for an hour and count birds. I did that last year and in one
rather cold hour I only saw a solitary pigeon. I beat that this morning when I
went out to gather up the dog turds and saw a couple of starlings on the fence.
We got ourselves
organised and set off to Kings Wood where we met Karl, Tracey and Charlotte We
went for a little wander following one of the series of Wherigo geocaches I hid
earlier last year. We had a good walk; it wasn’t too muddy at all. But (as
always) the Wherigo takes an age to play. Once we’d finally ascended to the
Porcelain Throne (as one does) and had a picnic lunch time was running
away. We had planned another Wheri-adventure, but that will keep for another
day.
As we walked we met Amy and Willow from Dog
Club, and loads of other people too. When we go mid-week we barely meet another
soul; at the weekends the place heaves with normal people.
We came home. “er
indoors TM” had a little kip. I looked at the geo-map. Now that
the worst of the winter is past (he laughed!) I’d like to get back in to
going for decent walks at the weekends. The trouble is that what with everyone
wanting to find caches and precious few people wanting to hide them we have to
travel further and further for a decent geo-walk. I found some puzzles which
once solved might make for good walks… I started solving puzzles.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a rather
good curry which we scoffed whilst watching “Junior Bake Off”, and with
telly watched I set about solving more puzzles. As I solved Bailey snored on
the sofa next to me. As she snored she grumbled and growled in her dreams.
A dreaming dog is rather sweet…
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